I’ve read recently a few people referring to a particular cancer as being ‘the good cancer to get’.
Riter (2015) notes the following when he says,
….all cancer is bad, but in oncology offices, there are good cancers and there are bad cancers.
Really?
On a simplistic level perhaps, where some cancers have a high success rate when it comes to treatment.
But this ‘good cancer’ and ‘bad cancer’ differentiation troubles me somewhat.
There is no ‘good cancer’ and those that are saying it should stop. Repeat, there is no good cancer.
There are benign tumours and malignant tumours.
But there is no good cancer. It’s a whopping misconception to say there is.
Benign means it is not cancer. That’s good. In fact, that’s bloody marvellous!
Some cancers might have a higher survival rate and some might be deemed ‘curable’ which I suppose might make that ‘good’ but there are no guarantees, ever, so I’m not so sure.
Thyroid cancer is often quoted as being one of the so-called ‘good cancers’ because of its treatability and relatively favourable survival rates but as Randle et al (2017) say,
The “good cancer” perception is at the root of many mixed and confusing emotions. Clinicians emphasize optimistic outcomes, hoping to comfort, but they might inadvertently invalidate the impact thyroid cancer has on patients’ lives.
A type of cancer might enjoy a higher survival rate statistically speaking but no one can be 100% on that and you are always a prisoner, always looking over your shoulder and you never take a day for granted.
No one in the medical profession should commit to offering a patient a ‘good outcome‘ message.
It’s very rare that a doctor can be sure that cancer will never come back and so to be given the ‘all clear’ isn’t what it seems and actually foolhardy. The ‘all-clear’ is a myth.
The language of cancer is a curious world where one expression can mean something quite different depending on who’s saying it and who’s listening.
Even if there was such a thing as a good cancer, no one wants to hear they have cancer.
Cancer is cancer and some are deadlier than others and what stage you are at matters the most.
It’s certainly not good practice to infuse optimism by saying ‘you have the good cancer’.
Let me repeat. There is no good cancer.
Let Chelsey Gomez tell you through her brilliant artwork.