We've focused on the molecular, cellular, and medicinal aspects of cancer in this class quite a bit. What we haven't focused on is the human element. Since most of the class wants to be medical doctors, we, as students, have an interest in the human element or we wouldn't be in this class, attempting to understand how cancer works.
We've learned the hallmarks of cancer, how cancer develops, grows, and metastasizes. We learned the genetic causes of cancer and explored how tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes make the cell cycle go haywire. We looked at treatments: radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy.
But what happens after treatment? Not every cancer is immediately fatal. Most cancer patients make a slow transition from being a cancer victim to cancer survivor. In 2005, the Institute of Medicine focused on this journey in a report. Accompanying that report was a short film.
It only takes seventeen minutes and speaks volumes to the direction cancer research and treatment should go: towards living with cancer, managing cancer as if it were diabetes or a similar disease.
It is easy to get lost in the pathways and mutations that lead to cancer and forget what is at the heart of cancer: the patient.
A forum for all things cancer related. Brought to you by the Bio 179 students at Santa Clara University.
