More than two million Americans receive a cancer diagnosis each year, but many cases entail little threat to life. When doctors label a slow-growing grade group one prostate tumor as cancer, patients often experience severe anxiety and rushed treatments that risk permanent functional impairments. The biological reality is that these intrinsic cells lack the molecular hallmarks of metastasis, yet the linguistic label carries the full weight of a terminal disease.
Modern medical technology has advanced rapidly, but our terminology remains stuck in the nineteenth century. Changing how we talk about indolent conditions is a necessary step to prevent the harms of overtreatment, though finding a new consensus label that satisfies both patients and physicians will not be easy.
more: https://aeon.co/essays/we-need-a-better-way-to-describe-what-is-often-called-cancer
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