After Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Most people dread cancer more than any other disease. Their fear cannot be attributed only to fear of death. After all, heart disease claims twice as many victims as cancer does. But people usually associate cancer with radical, disfiguring treatments, consequent disability, and then a lingering and painful death. In other words, the popular view is that cancer not only destroys life but also destroys the quality and usefulness of whatever life remains after diagnosis and therapy.