The Big C

Film producer Laura Ziskin died yesterday of breast cancer. She’s known for the Spider Man movies and Pretty Woman, and a lot of other films besides. Driving home today, I heard her obituary on NPR; and one bit in particular caught my ear. Ms. Ziskin was speaking before an audience, telling them she was “hopping mad about the state of cancer research,” and that 1500 Americans will die every day of the disease.

I sympathize with her. This woman lost her life to breast cancer and she saw it coming and she was pissed. I would be too. Like everyone else here (I imagine), my life has been shaped by the cancers of those close to me, and I dread it as much as anyone. But her “hopping mad” comment implies an understanding which I think is faulty to the core, and I feel compelled to set the thing right, because getting mad is not going to solve the problem. Nor will throwing more money at cancer research (though I doubt that would hurt).

Back when I taught residents and med students, I used to give a talk about cancer that had one purpose only: to impress upon my audience the hugeness of the problem. I’d like to see if I can do the same thing here, in relatively few words, with what I assume is a medically unsophisticated audience (for the most part). Here goes. Follow my logic . . .