(Aeon) – Saying the word ‘cancer’ changes a person’s life and can lead to overtreatment and fear. Is the word too hot to use at all?

Cancer was no longer a shameful obscenity but a rallying cry. Shattering the silence was undoubtedly progress. But with this shift came new metaphors – and new expectations. No longer an unspeakable fate, cancer became a battle to be fought, with patients cast as warriors, urged to ‘Fight Like Hell’. Drive through any major city in the United States, and you’ll pass billboards with slogans: ‘We Fight for You’; ‘Your Battle Begins Here.’ Cancer centres recruit patients, urging them to enlist. Public health campaigns preach constant vigilance against a lurking enemy needing to be stamped out before it takes root. What was once too fearsome to name became a call to action.

Many now worry the pendulum has swung too far. Overtreatment – intervening where it’s unlikely to help and likely to harm – has become a major problem in modern oncology. (Read More)