Stephen Jay Gould wrote a brilliant essay I think most cancer patients, their friends, and their family would benefit from. (That probably covers most of the population since cancer is so prevalent!!)  In fact, the article is a great read for anything for which you have heard statistical information about disability or morbidity.

The article is only a few pages, and there are two ways to read it.  On the web it is here but I personally found it hard to read at that site.  Therefore I put the article into columns in a MS Word document.  You can download it here:  Download MedianNotMessageCancer_Gould.doc

Gould was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and serious cancer usually associated with exposure to asbestos. He wrote this article soon after reading in the literature that "mesothelioma is incurable, with a median mortality of only eight months after discovery".  Dr. Gould lived for 20 more very productive years after his diagnosis, thus exceeding his 8-month median survival by a factor of thirty!  Here are some small excerpts of the article.

This is a personal story of statistics, properly interpreted, as profoundly nurturing and life giving. It declares holy war on the downgrading of intellect by telling a small story about the utility of dry, academic knowledge about science. Heart and head are focal points of one body, one personality.

...  match people with the same cancer for age, class, health, socioeconomic status, and, in general, those with positive attitudes, with a strong will and purpose for living, with commitment to struggle, with an active response to aiding their own treatment and not just a passive acceptance of anything doctors say, tend to live longer.

... One final point about statistical distributions; they apply only to a prescribed set of circumstances - in this case to survive with mesothelioma under conventional modes of treatment. If circumstances change, the distribution may alter.

Comments

[Ajlouny]

Great post. Mesothelioma is a horrible type of asbestos cancer and often can take up to 25-40 years after exposure for diagnosis. god bless

[Viv Ilo Veith]

Yes, I actually have done a fair amount of work for Bergman & Frockt law firm. They specialize in Mesothelioma cases.

So much of the information about Mesothelioma is like handing the person a death sentence. What I appreciated with Gould's article is how he explored the truth behind those statistics. And that truth gave him hope and energized him in his fight against Mesothelioma.

Gould lived over 20 years past his diagnosis. He also did not die of Mesothelioma, though he did die from a type of non related cancer in the end.

Thanks for commenting.