cancer Archives - The Painful Truth

The United State of Grief

Ken Kirsh the Steelworker Pain Psychologist

Steven D. Passik, Ph.D., is a Pennsylvania-based pain psychologist. I’m proud to call him a friend. He is a giant in the field of pain medicine, but that doesn’t make his family and friends immune to suffering from terminal illness.

Steve lost his mother on September 14, 2016. Her story, The Painful Later Years of Frances Passik, appeared here. He’s given me permission to share the story of losing his best friend, Ken Krish, here.

As it turned out, I had lied to my best friend.

Fascinating New Cancer Tech of Biomarkers and Dogs’ Noses

We are making headway in the fight against preventing, detecting, and treating cancer. You may already know that genes may someday hold the answers to treating, detecting, and even preventing cancer.

Improved Genetic Therapy for Cancer Treatment

You may also have heard that genetic therapy carries with it risks. But, according to the Genetic Literacy Project, scientists have recently found a way to make genetic therapy safer. In November 2016, the Genetic Literacy Project reported, “Scientists have developed a new safer gene therapy that may reduce the risk of cancer and can be used for many blood diseases” by altering the way in which a virus carries a beneficial gene to its target cell. This reduces the risk of cancer and can also be used for many blood diseases.

Is Death from Pain a Natural Death?

What is a natural death?

That’s partly a judgment call, and it reveals our prejudice against pain patients.

Pain treatment and cancer treatment are two colors of the same spectrum.

They both serve the same purpose, and yet they’re perceived very differently. Pain treatment with an opioid is unacceptable to many advocating against the use of opioids for non-cancer pain. Cancer treatment, on the other hand, is valiant — whether it works or not, whether it hastens death or not.

What Is the Icon for Chronic Pain?

The Icon For Cancer: The Jimmy Fund

Say what you will about Boston sports teams. One of them, the Boston Braves, helped launch “The Jimmy Fund.”

It all started in 1948. At that time, members of polite society rarely mentioned cancer. Fear, superstition, and ignorance caused people to whisper about cancer, steer clear of anyone who had been diagnosed with it, and even refer to it as the “c-word.”

This state of affairs, unfortunately, marginalized cancer patients and their needs. It also slowed down cancer research. Progress to find treatments was dismal, and there was a lack of awareness of how much could be accomplished if only people felt empathy for cancer patients.

Will Cancer and Pain Melt Away?

Alec Ross, author of a book called Industries of the Future, writes that, in 20 years, cancer may be curable. We might just be able to “melt it away.”

Frequently, I compare pain to cancer. Believe it or not, pain is far more complex than cancer.

Cancer usually starts from a single DNA mutation. On the other hand, pain may involve multiple mutations that can influence each other and evolve depending on environmental factors.

Cancer involves a physiological process that has been disturbed. Pain involves multiple disturbed processes including cognition, emotions, social interactions, memories and physical stimulus. Genetic mutations that affect the expression and function of each of these areas can affect the dynamic experience of pain.