Cancer deaths are down over the past three decades, but cancerphobia is as strong as ever, Washington Post columnist Steven Petrow reported July 5.
Since 1991, cancer deaths are down 33%, the American Cancer Society found. However, fear around treatment, side effects, pain, radiation, recurrence, infertility and dying remain. Some of these fears are outdated thanks to medical advances. Across all cancers, the five-year survival rate is now around 69%, up from about 50% in 1975, the National Cancer Institute found.
Many cancers today are treated as chronic conditions or cured outright, but patients' fears have not caught up with current medical practices, Mr. Petrow wrote.
Part of the reason could be because society talks more openly about disease. More openness means less stigma, but frequent stories about prominent cases can increase fear, Jessy Levin, PhD, an attending psychologist at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told the Post.
This fear can result in patients wanting medically unnecessary surgeries, such as prostatectomies and mastectomies for cancers that have not spread and are not likely to do so. For these cancers, active surveillance with periodic follow-ups is an appropriate treatment, experts told the newspaper.
However, patients' lack of control or powerlessness can drive them to exhaust potential options.
"We want to be able to say, 'I can do this and avoid that,'" Dr. Levin said. "Cancer sticks in your mind as one of those things 'I can't control.'"