I must have been quite a sight, hobbling from display to display on crutches while taking my med-school anatomy final. I remember thinking how much I hated those crutches. Almost forty years later, I rely on a variety of crutches to manage aftereffects of past cancer therapies and (how great to write this) the effects of aging. I love each and every crutch.

I'm reading a popular new book that lambasts screening tests and the medical community that recommends them. Meanwhile, I just read an article put out by the University of Missouri, reporting "A team led by University of Missouri psychological science researchers has determined that patients may want cancer screenings even if the potential harms outweigh the benefits."

What is going on? Why would anyone abandon effective cancer screening tests? Why would anyone want screening tests they've been told are harmful and not helpful?  

An extraordinary woman offers wisdom to all us ordinary people. Colon cancer recently ended her life, but not before she left us words of wisdom in her blog and

How do you deal with the uncomfortable emotion that may arise after someone else dies of the same disease you survived? 

I've been mulling over options for a label to replace "survivor guilt" --the emotion some patients experience after someone else dies from the same disease they had/have. Key ideas about the feeling: