I/2. The Solution
The only answer to cancer is to fight: odds are you will win.
To fight for life requires the assembly of great qualities, and their application at an extreme level not previously attempted. We do not know how much our cancer is beyond our control and how much it can be affected by fighting it in 100 ways. But, we do know for certain that mental attitudes and physical strengths directly affect the outcome. Whether and when we die of cancer depends in part on ourselves. It is therefore wise to assume that how and how hard we fight will improve the quantity and quality of our lives and could tip the balance and make all the difference between victory and defeat. In fact, it makes sense to apply that to everything we do. Our life isn’t the only thing worth fighting for.
––John Roberts
Sir, I have not yet begun to fight.
––Admiral John Paul Jones, 1779 (When surrender was demanded.)
The vast majority of survivors do not believe they got well by chance. The triumphant patients believe they worked for their wellness, earning it on a daily basis. Neither do most survivors credit their doctors alone for their recovery. Instead, the exceptional patients focus on mobilizing body, mind, and spirit in their quest for high-level wellness.
––Greg Anderson, 50 Essential Things to Do When the Doctor Says It’s Cancer, 1993
It has taken approximately 2,000 years for scientists to go from thinking black bile was the cause of cancer to unraveling the mysteries of DNA. Clearly the work is still incomplete. Yet there is excitement in almost every field of biological research because we are on the brink of learning what the many pieces of the puzzle are and how they fit together. Fortunately, each basic discovery also aids scientists who are developing new treatments. Although a cure for all cancers is probably in the distant future, cures for certain types of cancer, ways to slow cancer’s progress, and treatments to extend a a person’s lifespan with cancer and improve the quality of his or her life are continually emerging.
––Harmon J. Eyre, M.D., et al., Informed Decisions, 2nd Ed., 2002
The solution to the cancer problem lies in many hands. The two greatest advances of recent decades are scientific knowledge and early detection. Biochemistry has created new treatments, especially drugs that prevent or attack the disease at new levels. Now we are tinkering with the cells themselves. Education and grass-roots organization have increased the rewards of finding cancer while it is still treatable. This great progress will continue. But, there is a third area that has lagged behind and that is the education, motivation, and skill of the possible cancer patient, the existing patient, and the survivor in order to help them find and fight the disease. It is, in other words, the subject of this book.
The cancer fighter is a general in a great war. He has many people and weapons for use against many targets. He must plan, organize, control, and lead the fight with all available weapons. His big disadvantage is that he cannot be sure which of his weapons are effective. So, he must try to use them all. One weapon will not win the war. He must use many, and they must be applied collectively and precisely in order to have the desired effect. Consider some of the major weapon systems:
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Planning and Strategy: The general is fighting shadows in the dark. The enemy is inexorable, almost always growing, changing, and attacking new targets. The enemy lurks, difficult to see, clever in surprise and diversity. Progress reports are sketchy and erratic. The general, with his doctor at his side, must develop and train his team in the strategies that will carry out the plan. These are always in flux, adjusting to the devious evil of the enemy.
•Attitude: The leader must motivate his team to follow him into battle. He must maintain strong self-control and self-esteem. He must exert unprecedented control over his thoughts and emotions. He must put aside his worries, regrets, and negative thinking. He must be a shining example of positive and optimistic attitudes.
•Fighting Spirit: The fighting spirit of the leader changes the temperature in the room. It is a fire that spreads to every soul and heart, uniting everyone in the common goal.
•Determination: The leader’s perseverance and self-discipline must be strong enough to infect the others. He must never feel or show discouragement or any sign of giving up. Despite overwhelming odds, he must seek with all his weapons that extra edge that may make the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death.
•Management: The manager insures that every weapon is prepared and ready to use at the right time against the right target. He must know the ins and outs of the complex medical system within which he operates and which provides so many of his weapons.
•Knowledge: The leader cannot know everything. But, he can know enough about cancer and the treatments so that he can supervise the process. He must study his enemy thoroughly so that he can manage his weapons.
•Health: If the leader does not maintain his own health, the enemy may more easily attack and win, and all the other efforts may be for naught. He must surround the cancer with an otherwise healthy body; he must energize his fitness and resistance to attack; he must fuel himself with nutrition to keep his personal weapons strong.
•Medicine: Most science is beyond the control of the general, but he must know something about what it can or cannot do, and lead the decision-making to match that against his needs and the weaknesses of the enemy.
•Defeat: In some cases, the war is finally lost, and there is little the general can do except organize and make happy the remaining time. His body and morale may be weak and wounded. But, he still has his fighting spirit and enough life remaining to arrange the peace.
•Victory: In the majority of cases, the war will be won; but the leader must never let down his guard against the possibility of a resurgence. For the rest of his life, he must maintain his vigilance and defenses to insure the final victory by dying of something else.
