The purpose and intent of the Cancer Wellness Center, is to help people in their journey with cancer. One aspect of this experience is the serious talk many doctors have with their patients about the question how long does the patient have to live.

The doctors' serious talk is a discussion of the patient's prognosis. A prognosis is a prediction and like all good scientific predictions, it is an expectation of the outcome based on statistical evidence.
REMEMBER, statistical evidence is based on large groups of numbers. Applying statistical information to individuals is often not realistic or scientifically correct. Anything is possible in an individual situation. 

The individual's will to live is never in the numbers and connot be quantified. The impulse towards life is buried in the heart of all of us.The will to live can be nourished and strengthened by our presence and by our words.

For the cancer patient the message is clear. Avoid clinging to statistical information. Each person is different and anything is possible in an individual situation.

Always remember that applying statistical information to individuals often destroys hope and is not always realistic.

We all live through hope. What we hope for changes as we travel through life, but hope remains a constant necessity for life. Hope is at the very heart of healing.

Dr. Jerome Groopman, states in his book "The Anatomy of Hope", "Clear-eyed hope gives us the courage to confront our circumstances and the capacity to surmount them. For all my patients, hope, true hope, has proved as important as any medication I might prescribe or any procedure I might perform."

-WRP-