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Abstract:
[Our original introduction to "Listen to the Patient" is published again to emphasize the Journal's commitment to this important series.] For more than 50 years, Cancer has been devoted to exploring every facet of malignant neoplasia, from morphology to therapy, from epidemiology to biology, from historical perspective to basic science. One aspect, however, needs emphasis, namely, the human being who bears the burden of the cancer. For this reason and with the encouragement of the Editor, we have undertaken to remedy this situation by directing attention to the fears and frustrations, hopes and expectations, and feelings and thoughts of all kinds of the person who has cancer, who is worried about it, and who is dependent on physicians specialized in its diagnosis and management. For doctors to be understanding of the very deep needs of patients with cancer, it is requisite that they be privy to authentic, but often unspoken, expressions of a patient's anxieties about physical and emotional pain, loss of control over personal destiny, and plain dread of dying and of the end of cherished relationships. The essay that follows was written by a woman diagnosed with cancer who felt herself alone and in need of talking with others who faced the same diagnosis. Barrie R. Cassileth, Ph.D. Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York A. Bernard Ackerman, M.D. Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology, New York, New York.