“In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice that the world keeps shifting so quickly under her feet that she has to keep running just to keep her position. So what is it about cancer that makes it one of the more difficult medical puzzles to solve? Why is this? Some would pose radical conspiracy theories, exclaiming that, “it’s the government man, they’re hiding the cure to keep making money off of it,” but this doesn’t pass the weakest of sniff tests, considering the incredible amount of money that the government loses to cancer research and treatment efforts every year. Regardless of the mechanism, it is evident that cancer strikes an emotional blow unlike any other disease pathway, and it is this emotional blow that drives us to pink walks, Locks of Love, and bone marrow drives yet, it seems that no matter how hard we push to relieve cancer’s burden on patients, their families, and the world, it seems to evade us. Or maybe its cancer’s stealth, with which it can lay under the radar until it induces a life expectancy of only months. Maybe it’s the way that cancer attacks your identity, forcing you to choose between your hair and your life. Maybe it is the traitorous aspect of cancer, marked by your own cells going rogue and turning against you. It’s never easy losing a loved one, nor witnessing them struggle through medical distress, but there is something particularly cruel about when either of these occurs due to cancer.
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