Powerful New Voices Add to the Chorus Calling for a War on Cancer…Phobia
A group of experts advising the U.S. National Institutes of Health has added their voice to a rising chorus calling for a War on Cancer…Phobia. They have suggested that for many cancers, the word cancer itself be removed from the diagnosis, because the fear associated with cancer causes patients to do more harm to themselves to treat their condition than the condition itself warrants. From the If you were to be diagnosed with cancer, how do you think you would feel? It would depend on the type of cancer of course, but there’s a good chance that no matter the details, the word ‘cancer’ would make the diagnosis much more frightening. Frightening enough, in fact, to do you as much harm, or more, than the disease itself. There is no question that in many cases, we are Cancer Phobic, more afraid of the disease than the medical evidence says we need to be, and that fear alone can be bad for our health. As much as we need to understand cancer itself, we need to recognize and understand this risk, the risk of Cancer Phobia, in order to avoid all of what this awful disease can do to us.
https://develop.bigthink.com/risk-reason-and-reality/cancer-phobia-fear-of-the-disease-can-do-as-much-harm-or-more-than-the-disease-itself
