Our Next Generation and Cancer Awareness

On a recent trip to the mall, my son turned to me and asked, “Mom, does walking cure cancer?”

I sat for a moment to figure-out where that question came from, although Jamie can come at me from left field at any given moment, constantly keeping me on my toes. In the silence between us, a commercial for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk played in the background.

“Oh! No, Jamie, walking doesn’t cure cancer. This is a walk that people join to help raise money for cancer research. The researchers then have the money to keep working on trying to cure cancer once and for all.”

He thought about it for a second, then said, “So we’re just all going to end up getting it until the researchers cure it?”

“No, honey, not everyone gets cancer, but it is going to be a great day when the researchers do cure it forever,” I explained.

“Almost everyone we know gets it,” Jamie insisted. “Even people in my friends’ families. Even kids at school.”

I started to disagree, but realized he was correct. Sadly, like almost every other family in America, cancer has affected close and distant family members, friends and co-workers. Happily, however, these same people have battled valiantly, and thanks to early detection, enormous strides in medical treatment, naturopath and holistic therapies, the majority of them are still with us today, happy, healthy and cancer-free.

I was struck by how different a cancer diagnosis was thirty-odd years ago when I was Jamie’s age. Cancer was discussed amongst the adults in hushed tones and essentially was a death sentence. The radiation and chemo treatments were brutal, and the end of the patient’s life was not a matter of if, but when.

Flash forward to today, when improved recovery rates, patient success stories and the bombardment of cancer public service announcements have brought cancer to the forefront of our public consciousness; we as individuals no longer keep a cancer diagnosis a secret. Support groups for patients and their family members are readily available from the moment a diagnosis is made.

Cancer treatment centers and hospital-based treatment programs coupled with the “Happy Birthday” public service campaign from the American Cancer Society fill cable and radio airwaves in mind-boggling levels. Any time one of the commercials play, my mother-in-law changes the channel or walks away from the television. “I just can’t take one more cancer commercial” (she lost her sister close to 25 years ago to breast cancer, and the pain today is still too much to bear).

From my son’s point of view, based on our family’s experience, cancer is a curable disease that many people have, get very sick, but then get better; messages reinforced by the ACS public service announcements promoting bringing families more birthdays, and cancer treatment centers promoting better treatments and survival odds.

Is it possible that these overtly positive messages about cancer and the various available treatments are sending a confusing mixed message to the next generation of adults who will still face one of the most frightening diseases of our time? This disease still does not have a cure, sadly cancer takes many people from their families on a daily basis, yet many young adults view cancer as my son does: You get it, you get treatment, you get better (a prime example suggested to me was teens who continue to use tanning booths and bake in the sun without sunscreen because skin cancer really isn’t a ‘bad’ cancer).

I fear our next generation may become desensitized to the disease. Will it become more difficult for two of the largest fundraisers for breast cancer research, “Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer” and “The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure”, to raise money for cancer research? Are the positive cancer treatment messages necessary to buoy the spirits of patients minimizing the messages of the medical community that cancer is still a deadly disease that requires early detection and intervention for successful treatment in the long run?  

I’m not remotely saying that tweens and teens do not care about those patients and their families who are coping with cancer on any level: But I do fear many young adults are reaching a saturation level and beginning to tune-out important messages from cancer-related organizations.

The American Cancer Society’s public presence is necessary now more than ever, yet it will somehow need to address a timely and pressing concern: How much information is too much when it comes to cancer awareness, and when do the messages begin to fall on deaf ears? How can a cancer discussion, when timely and age appropriate, be frank and honest, yet not lean too far toward the positive or focus purely on the gloom and doom?

As Jamie continues to ask questions, I will continue to answer in honest and age-appropriate ways, reminding myself to strive for balance.