John McCain did not 'lose' his battle with glioblastoma — because cancer is not a war
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A little more than one year has passed since John McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that carries a grim prognosis. On Saturday, only one day after it was announced that the Arizona senator had decided to “discontinue medical treatment,” he passed away .
Since McCain’s diagnosis was revealed, his cancer has been discussed by colleagues, supporters and media outlets in language rife with military metaphors. This is partly because of the context of McCain’s life — martial terms may seem particularly appropriate for a valiant man who endured more than five years in an unforgiving North Vietnamese prison. As Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote in the New Yorker, much of his time as a POW was spent “awaiting torture or recovering from it.”
But while McCain left the battlefield many years ago, the rhetoric surrounding his illness was decidedly martial. The Republican was heralded as a “fighter,” a “worthy opponent,” and a “warrior.” He would beat cancer with the same steely determination and courage forged in the crucible that was the Hanoi Hilton. And now in the wake of his death, it is already being written that McCain “lost his battle to cancer,” as CBS New York noted in its headline.
These metaphors perhaps first entered the popular oncology lexicon in 1971, when President Richard Nixon declared a “war” on cancer, which he described as a “relentless and insidious enemy.” But the bellicose rhetoric, which was intended to galvanize the public and swell the coffers of cancer research, is at best misguided and at worse counterproductive. It forces a patient’s cancer outcome to be viewed solely in terms of victory or defeat, and, most distressingly, dictates the vocabulary that individuals themselves use to understand and speak of their disease.
Though cancer is often regarded as the emperor of all maladies, it is in reality merely one of many equally devastating illnesses. I have seen the effects of crippling and transformative conditions like end-stage heart failure, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), kidney failure and advanced cirrhosis. These conditions dramatically alter the trajectory of a patient’s life, carry poor prognoses, cause anguish for families and require a heightened level of medical and supportive care. Yet patients are not routinely drafted in a war against kidney failure or dementia.
Further, military metaphors can actually confound a patient’s understanding of his or her cancer. As Xeni Jardin, a writer and cancer survivor , put it in 2017: “Cancer, I soon learned, is my own cells going rogue. Suddenly all the combat language was confusing. Am I the invading army or the battleground? Am I the soldier or a hostage the soldier's trying to liberate? All of the above?”
Most importantly, martial language propagates the dangerous myth that cancer capitulates to patients who possess a dogged resolve and that death is the result of a personal failure to fight hard enough. These intangibles matter little. Research has shown that having a fighting spirit as a psychological coping strategy has little impact on survival in patients with cancer.
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I found this article interesting since I lost two friends to cancer within the last 3 months. They both viewed it as a battle, but where Jon accepted his fate long before he was given the talk about that this would be the end, my friend Sue, wouldn't accept this. She was a fighter until almost the end. I don't know if cancer is any more a war than say ALS or lupus, but we don't seem to use those terms for those diseases. Is there a fundamental difference between cancer than any other disease?
My young Son was diagnosed with one of the rarest forms of cancer known to man. There are less than 500 cases of that form of cancer reported world wide each year.
It is tumors that spread through the blood and feed on muscle, normally in the heart and lungs, but, also other parts of the body. It is called Metastatic Carcinoma, or Ravenous Sarcoma. He was one of the youngest people to ever have the disease, as it is normally found in elderly patients who already have a low immune system.
There is very little know about that form of cancer, as those who contract it usually die within 6 months. Due to the fact that my Son was so young and had been in good health up until he contracted the disease, they felt that they could learn more about it from him as he would have a longer life span than the usual older patients. He underwent 8 major surgeries and lost 15% of one lung and 10% of the other, and underwent highly toxic chemo to help fight the tumors.
He researched the disease he had with the top Specialist in that field, who traveled around the world helping to train other doctors how to diagnose it and deal with it as best they could, keeping in mind the comfort and mental state of the patients.
My Son wanted for nothing under his Doctor's care, except for a longer life. We all knew from the start that the form of cancer was terminal. It was hard for all of us to accept, but, my Son fought it with all his being as the brave Warrior that he was. He hope that whatever the Doctors could learn from him in the time he had here on earth might enable them find a way to help other young patients that contracted the same form of cancer.
I may never know how many others might have benefited in some way from the information the Medical teams were able to glean from their treatment and study of my Son, but, I can only pray that one day some other young child will be able to survive and have a longer life. It will make all the suffering my Son bravely endured to help the Doctors learn more to hopefully help others.
And yes, cancer does declare war on the human body. It is relentless and non-discriminatory. My Son may not have won the war, but, no one could ask more bravery from any Warrior than what he was willing to accept.
A very heartbreaking story Raven. Nothing is worse than losing a child. I am so sorry for your loss.
It truly is hard to see the beautiful life your brought into this world being eaten alive every second of every day before my eyes by one of the most vicious diseases there is, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. If it had not been for the strength that the Creator blessed me with at the time, I don't think I could have dealt with it as I did in order to stay strong for my Son and help him cope with and accept the fact that his own life would soon end.
But, it was his ability to find the strength to accept his fate, and still find joy and beauty in the world around him. He told me once when we were visiting, "Mom, your are the only one I can talk to about my cancer, as everyone else just breaks down in tears." Little did he know that when I walked out the door, I broke don in tears as well. But, I had to remain strong for him, so that he could remain strong as well to face all the things that he had to deal with in his Chemo and surgeries, as well as the time when he would walk on and move on to the next steps of his own eternal journey.
I thank the Creator very day for giving me that strength so that I could be there for him when he needed me the most.
I'm very sorry that you have suffered through such a terrible loss Raven.
I'm sure you're proud that your son deserves much respect for his efforts to offer a means for researchers to learn more about Metastatic Carcinoma.
Yes, it is right for people to fight whatever illness or disease they may be attacked with. It provides the best means for doctors to learn how to provide relief and find cures.
My Son's Specialist suggested that my Son visit the Children's Hospital cancer wing to see how other children were trying to adjust to their own conditions, especially, those who were also terminal cases.
After spending a good deal of time there and talking to some of the children, my Son seemed to realize that he was not alone, that even though his own type of cancer was very rare, it does not make having to face the fact of death any more, or less, different no matter what type of cancer one has. It was also when he decided to work with the Specialists to help them glean as much information as possible from their treatments for him. He said, "Mom, if the Doctors can find something from treating me that will help other children survive my type of cancer, then I am willing to do all I can to help them. What it meant was to prolong his life for as long as possible, while the Doctors kept him as pain free as possible to reduce his suffering.
But, when the tumors had taken such a toll on his body that it could no longer be of help, they made sure that his life was as pleasant and pain free as possible.
Knowing that my Son was Native American, one of the Specialists wrote in a letter to him when it was determined there was nothing more they could do for him that said, "I have never met a braver Warrior who has fought so long and hard for the benefit of others. You will not be forgotten."
For me, that said it all.
I believe that when one hears the ''c'' word it has a much larger effect than lupus or als simply because it's more prevalent and there are numerous types of cancer that affect all sexes and ages.
While that is true, if you combine all the cancers together, 10X more people die of heart disease and stroke. So go figure?
I think it might have to do with how we treat cancer. The treatment can be as bad as the disease.
Sadly that is true.
May be a tad off topic here, so apologies..
Cancer is one of the few diseases that we actually do try to combat, (for lack of a better term). With most diseases, we treat the symptoms, not the disease itself.
I think the particular cancer McCain had has to be one of the worst since it progressively rots out one's brain. You lose yourself if you live long enough.
"having a fighting spirit as a psychological coping strategy has little impact on survival in patients with cancer."
Seeing "Cancer" being "Fought" in my family from time to time..... I've seen that the "Spirit" was said to be there by the family member (Let's fight this), but the heart really wasn't there by the individual (it was written all over their face). It IS NOT like you see in the movies. One made it through to remission, but the "Spirit" was worn out after everything they had to go through. They even said, "If it comes back, just let me go".
I thought about that last statement of hers. Was the "Fight" really for her.....or really just for us.
My cousin got non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was in his 20's. They caught it late and he beat it. But he said that if it ever came back, that he would rather die.
I know that treatments are far better now. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy does not kill the whole body while killing the cancer. Hopefully, we are moving to a time when there are more of these treatments.
My husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer July 2012. He had the whipple surgery August 16, 2012. Started chemo January 2013, treatment went well so they decided no radiation, they were watching 2 spots on his liver and the chemo seemed to be working to reduce them. Went into a clinical trial July 2013 as the spots on his liver were now coming back and there were more spots. First follow up appointment after clinical trial August 10, 2013. Told it did not work and there was nothing else that could be done. First words out of his mouth to me were sorry I let you down.
He died at home in my arms August 15, 2013 surrounded by family
Is there a better way to go than that? My mom died in 2007 surrounded by all her kids. We thought she was doing fine after a hip fracture but things suddenly went south, so we all flew in from the coasts (or mountain top in my case) and were able to spend almost a day talking and joking with her before she passed. That we were able to do that still means a lot to us.