CANCER is Medical term that includes a wide range of diseases. What distinguishes these diseases is the abnormal growth of cells, as they divide and multiply without the ability to control them, and are able to penetrate and destroy healthy body tissues and impede their normal functioning, and are often able to spread throughout the body.
Cancer arises as a result of a change (mutation) in the chain of DNA in cells (DNA). These cells are called cancerous.
Carcinomas are the collection of cancer cells in a mass, but not all cancer diseases produce cancerous tumors, for example, leukemia is the proliferation of cancer cells in the blood without forming a mass.
Cancer is divided into 4 stages, depending on how far it has spread in the body. The first stage is during which the cancer is still in one place or one organ and has not spread. As for the fourth stage, during which the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. But the survival rates of many types of cancer are improving, thanks to the development of methods for detecting and treating cancer, as it is easier to treat in the early stages. The psychological state also plays an important role in treatment.
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for a person to know that a loved one has cancer or a serious illness.
The difficulty lies in how to relieve this patient, who is usually very sensitive, by talking to him, and using appropriate and appropriate words.
This matter has become among the methods studied, known as "etiquette for mitigating cancer patients", which was the pioneering work of Dr. Bernadine Healy, who previously suffered from this malignant disease.
On this subject, Healy says, "When I was sick, I discovered that there are some people who do not know how to deal with cancer patients, especially when relieving them, and they also use the strangest words that can be heard."
Healy, who previously headed the National Institute of Health and the American Red Cross, gives some examples of this in her book, titled Living Time, including that a woman was comforting her sick friend, saying: "You look amazing, it is amazing that someone looks beautiful while dying." .
In another example, Healy says that another woman was visiting her sick friend, and she began to feel the last hair, and asked her, "Is your hair natural, or do you wear a wig?"
These statements, says Healy, do not belong to the list of palliative behaviors for cancer patients.
Haley asserts that such people can be more sensitive if they imagine themselves in the position of patients, stressing the need for the first question that comes to the mind of a person before talking to a cancer patient, "If I am sick with this disease, what do I want people to console me?"
Healy says that the best thing that one can start with is tenderness, where phrases such as: "I think you look great, you should know that I care a lot about you, and I love you and will always be at your side."
Healy adds that it is important to continue to offer expressions of encouragement, whether in person or through short messages, such as "I know that you are able to conquer the disease, because getting infected with it is not fun at all, and you should know that you are very strong."
And Healy warns against making "no-brainer" phrases for the sick in general, and for those who are newly discovered to have the disease.
Healy stresses the necessity to delete some negative vocabulary from the dictionary of mitigation behaviors for cancer patients, such as that this disease is "malignant" that does not cure, and that this is the "last stop" in your life, and "there is no hope of your cure."
At the end of her book, Healy says, "If you do not have the right words to relieve the patient, do simple things, such as hugging them with a bow, or sending a short message and writing phrases, such as: We think of you all the time, and trust your strength."
On the other hand, Shelly Lewis, who worked for CNN previously and suffered from breast cancer, confirms the validity and importance of these advice that Haley provides, as she says: “Those who will come to visit are friends and family, and if they utter any hurtful words, they do not mean that. Because their main goal is to relieve the patient, who does not accept anything easily.
"I think it is important for visitors to listen to the cancer patient rather than talk all the time," she adds.