To Survive Cancer, Do We Need To Try To Live With It?

When I was in college, my grandfather died of cancer.

A few years later, a friend of mine died of leukemia when he was only thirty-two years old, leaving behind a wife who was eight months pregnant.

Then my father died of cancer after being on oxygen for eight years.

So on a regular basis, I try to read books and articles about the subject of cancer. 

One such article is, "To Survive Cancer, Live With It."

It's about a new generation of cancer researchers, who look at the disease in a different way, as well as a different approach in treating it.

According to Robert Gatenby, a mathematical oncologist at the Moffitt Cancer Center,

"...trying to wipe cancer out altogether actually makes it stronger by helping drug-resistant cells flourish. Rather than fighting cancer by trying to eradicate its every last cell, he suggests doctors might fare better by intentionally keeping tumors in a long-term stalemate."

Gatenby goes on to say,

"It's hard to convince doctors or patients not to give the maximum dose of chemotherapy and kill as many cells as possible, because that seems like the right thing to do. But the models suggest that it's the wrong thing to do," said Gatenby. 

"The models suggests that we have to go against what’s intuitive."

(You can read the entire article and interview at Wired.com.)

One out of three people in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer.

What are you doing to beat the odds?