The opinion among doctors is very similar to that of the general public: if a patient has suffered from cancer, should we or should we not undertake such or such a novel therapy?

The ancient axiom « you can never get over cancer », remains solidly anchored in our understanding.

The cancer = death equation persists in the medical and care-team opinion, and may lead to attitudes of abandon towards novel or active therapeutic possibilities.

At the same time, the general public refuses to admit the noxiousness of tobacco and alcohol, making no active effort to support prevention policies, and denying the relationship between a particular type of cancer and a particular consumption habit, preferring to leave all cancers in the same miserable basket, stricken by some sort of fate or providence.

However, many events come in contradiction to the above belief. The following table shows the number of patients cured from cancer (patients with regular follow-up).

The courageous contribution of certain celebrities, who dare to talk publicly about their cancer experience, offers a gradual improvement of general attitudes, even if many of them do not divulge their cancer-related problems (in a legitimate quest for intimacy).

There is not one cancer, but a great variety of cancer experiences.

Certain cancers, such as lung cancer, oesophageal cancer and selected head and neck cancers are quite legitimately considered to be a long (?) and painful illness. Curiously, patients suffering from these forms of cancer are often those who have always denied the toxicity of tobacco and alcohol and who continue to deny the seriousness of their illness, resolutely nourishing their confidence in all-powerful modern medicine.