"Call It Cancer" - Editorial - the Oncologist

Blogger's Note: comments/interpretation:

excerpt from article: "...A more controversial aspect of the NIH panel’s report wasthe statement that it may be a mistake to call low-grade low-volume prostate cancer a “cancer” in these patients...."

• the Oncologist is a subscriber-based publication; 

• the 'gist' of the article is a focus on prostate cancer, but the theme is transferable to all cancers - a discussion on what to call (prostate) cancers eg. those at low/high risk of recurrence, the same could be applied to ovarian cancer eg. LMP; the authors conclusions are just to call it cancer so as not to distract patients from understanding that risks including those still outstandsing and unknown issues (and of course those with rare subtypes of differing cancers, as an example)
• a good discussion for those who are getting 'off track' - psychosocial aspects and what is meaningful to patients/providers who deal with cancer in real life