Women deserve better from the CBC than to be told their “bad attitude” can give them cancer

I rarely catch White Coat, Black Art, but I was intrigued by the subject of the January 19th program “After breast cancer and failed reconstruction, this mom found beauty by going flat”, which I listened to recently. 

Like most middle-aged people, I'm no stranger to cancer: in November, I accompanied a close relative to her second lumpectomy (and associated follow-up treatment), my aunt died of breast cancer nearly a decade ago, my mother-in-law died of breast cancer in 1980 (~12 years post-mastectomy, no reconstruction), and a friend who had reconstructive surgery post-mastectomy is experiencing post-surgical infection and necrosis. And that’s just the breast cancer stories.

What surprised me was the program’s attempt to balance the terrible experience of Joanna Rankin, who describes being bullied into reconstructive surgery in Toronto (frankly, needing a double mastectomy at 32 means reconstruction was not her greatest worry) with the pro-reconstruction attitude of the “expert” interviewed by Dr. Brian Goldman on the program, Dr. Angel Arnaout, breast cancer surgeon and Ottawa region director of breast surgical oncology.

Basically, Arnaout said being happy and well-adjusted after breast cancer surgery reduces the chances of cancer recurrence. Which is misinformation, coming from a layman, but flat out shocking when delivered by a breast cancer specialist. 

Between approximately 21:23 and 22:25 of the recording. Dr. Arnaout says:

The reason [for encouraging immediate breast reconstruction] is because there is a lot of evidence now, especially in breast cancer, that your psychological emotions and your outlook on life is a very strong predictor of how well you will do from cancer, prognosis-wise. And that linkage of how you feel about yourself and therefore how confident you are and how well you present yourself and integrate yourself back into a normal life, and breast reconstruction is supposed to help with easing you back into a normal life and getting out there and doing exercise and being happy. All of it is linked in a lot of studies to your survivorship and your prognosis from a cancer point of view. There is a lot of evidence to show that if you are happier and you’re exercising, because you’re happier you’re taking care of your body and you’re eating well, all those things reduce your chances of recurrence. And so having the option of breast cancer reconstruction is actually now considered part of cancer treatment.

In this rambling, slightly incoherent paragraph, Dr. Arnaout is actually saying that how a patient/survivor feels about herself will directly influence cancer recurrence and "survivorship". Now, this is a wonderful thing to believe (especially if you’re a cancer patient/survivor or surgeon) but unfortunately, it’s not true. Which makes it gobsmacking to have been uttered on CBC, and by an oncology specialist to boot. That Goldman has no problem accepting this proposition is equally staggering.

Because the corollary is: if you don’t feel good about yourself or you don’t have "a good attitude", you’re bringing the cancer (or recurrence) on yourself.

This is known as blaming the victim.

This isn’t just my opinion. The American Cancer Society website goes to great lengths to dispel these antiquated notions, on their page on “Attitude and Cancer”:

Treatment that deals with our emotions and relationships (sometimes called psychosocial interventions) can help people with cancer feel more upbeat and have a better quality of life. But there’s no good evidence to support the idea that these interventions can reduce the risk of cancer, keep cancer from coming back, or help the person with cancer live longer.

Further down that page, in a section on “Personality Traits and Cancer”, they go on:

For many years there have been those who were convinced that people with certain personality types were more likely to get cancer. The common thought was that neurotic people and introverts were at the highest risk of cancer. Along with that, some believed that personality affected the outcome of cancer – the likelihood that a person with cancer might die….In 2010, the largest and best-designed scientific study to date [on the question] was published. It looked at nearly 60,000 people, who were followed over time for a minimum of 30 years. This careful study controlled for smoking, alcohol use, and other known cancer risk factors. The study showed no link between personality and overall cancer risk. There was also no link between personality traits and cancer survival.

Finally, in a section titled “Does a positive attitude affect cancer?”, they write:

…many people want to believe that the power of the mind can control serious diseases. This is a comforting belief that can make a person feel safer from the risk of serious illness. If it were true, you could use your mind to stop the cancer from growing. But the down side of such beliefs is that when people with cancer don’t do well, they may blame themselves. To learn more about attitude and survival, researchers looked at the emotional well-being of more than 1,000 patients with head and neck cancer to find out whether it affected survival. Over time, those who scored high on emotional well-being showed no differences in cancer growth or length of life when compared with those with low scores. Based on what we know now about how cancer starts and grows, there’s no reason to believe that emotions can cause cancer or help it grow.

At Mayo Clinic.org, one finds, in a section on cancer myth-busting, the following:

Myth: A positive attitude is all you need to beat cancer

Truth: There’s no scientific proof that a positive attitude gives you an advantage in cancer treatment or improves your chance of being cured. 

Huge sums are no doubt being spent in the public system to provide reconstruction to mastectomy patients. Joanna Rankin’s story is that some women are bullied into accepting it. Maybe CBC journalists should be investigating that, and whether many/most oncology specialists have confused quality of life issues with the science of recurrence.

CBC Journalistic Practices related to Science and Health read, in part, “In matters of human health we will take particular care to avoid arousing unfounded hopes or fears in persons living with or close to those living with serious illnesses.”

Given the above, I would like Drs. Goldman and/or Arnaout to provide evidence for the notion they are putting forward: that breast reconstruction (and “a good attitude”) results in lower breast cancer recurrence rates.

And, if they cannot, I would expect the program to be corrected or pulled, and an apology to be prominently published on the White Coat, Black Art website.

Because people with cancer, and those who love them, deserve better from the CBC than to be told that their sadness, anger, or other “bad attitude” can give them cancer.

The Meaning Of Children: FREE ebook version on Amazon.com

FREE and for a limited time…

 

My book, The Meaning Of Children, on Amazon.com and you’re invited to download it!

(Yes, this is me, at about 9 months old)

To learn more about this publishing experiment, check out my interview, “Cutting out the middle man”, with CBC Montreal Cinq a Six’s incomparable Jeanette Kelly. It was broadcast yesterday; you can find it here (called--what else?-- "Cutting out the middle man").

 

I think it's a great story collection, but don't just take my word for it--try the free samples (yes, absolutely FREE! And for the first lucky thousand downloads, I'll throw in a set of FREE STEAK KNIVES!...Ummm, no, I won't...Sorry. Use your teeth).

 

BUT there are FREE samples: read "Tumbalalaika" using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature (it won second prize in The Antigonish Review's 2008 Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest).

 

Here's a link to another of my favourite pieces, the perfect story for Mother's Day--or Remembrance Day, come to think of it—a little gem of flash fiction story, name of “Pie,” http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/beverly-akerman/pie--2 ; a couple of dozen reader reactions are included below (they loved it as much as I do!).

 

If you’d like to know more about what I’m hoping to accomplish, please check out the other recent posts on this blog.


Ciao!

Sat., March 31st, ~5:30 pm: Publish or perish?

Bev Akerman justifies her Kindle give-aways...

Does she or doesn't she know what she's doing?

~5:30 PM on CBC Radio One's Cinq à Six

88.5 FM on the Montreal dial.

 

Live streamed & archived at http://www.cbc.ca/cinqasix/. 

In which your hero attempts to explain 

to the charming, talented Jeanette Kelly 

WHY on earth

she GAVE away 120+ copies of 

the Kindle version of the spectacularly reviewed

The Meaning Of Children 

last Saturday, March 24th,

not to mention why she will do it again!

Jeanette Kelly, host of Cinq a Six

Does she really know what she's doing? Who knows...

One writer, desperate to regain control of her brilliant career, trying to thrive without totally losing it...her shirt, her joie de vivre, etcetera!

Give a listen, I hope it doesn't sound too totally weird. But weird can still be artistic, excellent, AND fun, can it not? Witness the career of Steve Buscemi...

Steve Buscemi

 STAY TUNED...

 (There was a teaser this morning, which I did NOT hear...but some of my friends did!)

Updates here...
 
Goodreads profile.


And a new essay on how she came to write The Meaning Of Children.

The Meaning Of Children: on Mother's Day and Abortion

Just listening once more to my interview with the lovely, charming, and whip smart Anne Lagacé Dowson, a wonderfully generous interviewer and person. And I came across this discussion near the end about motherhood, feminism, abortion, and mother's day that I'm really happy with...she made it so easy to talk with her and I'm really grateful to her and to everyone who took the time to help nurture my little book...so here's a transcript of part of the interview, and I'll post the Youtube video below. 

Hope you enjoy and find some food for thought here. And, of course, in The Meaning Of Children!

Anne Lagacé Dowson

BA: ...As feminists coming of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we were so keen on making the best of all the opportunities that had been denied us for generations that I think we bought into the idea that teaching and nursing and mothering and care giving are lesser occupations. And of course they aren’t. They’re very, very important to all of us, especially as we age and become more and more dependent on caregivers. So I just am hoping partly to honour that fact of women’s lives.

ALD: In time for mother’s day. So if you are casting about for the perfect mother’s day gift, this might be it. The book is called The Meaning Of Children by Montreal author Beverly Akerman and it’s a collection of 14 short stories which sort of covers the range of experience from the point of view of children, Mums, and also aging parents as well. It’s all there in this lovely little book…short stories about life in a family that might just resemble yours…

You do make a lot of Montreal references in some the stories…and it’s very fun to read stories based and rooted in Montreal…lots of references to the Jewish community and family practices and so on…

What’s your sense of how your feminism has coloured the stories?

BA: I think it definitely has coloured the stories. There’s a story about abortion…I’m a prochoice feminist. It’s a very hard decision for a lot of people but I’m still glad that it’s a decision that is ours to make and not some external group trying to run our lives…

ALD: I thought that was a very brave story, actually, that you wrote. Because I think you’re writing about something that a lot of people have experienced but still feel very badly about talking about. It’s not out there in the civil discourse or in the public discussions of what family life is about.

BA:  I don’t think people feel comfortable acknowledging that they have had an abortion or that they’re related to someone who has. It’s still a very private family matter…

We’re very, very lucky to have grown up in the era in which we have where we do have so many more options than our mothers and grandmothers had. And we have to protect those options for the future generations. I think that’s very important too.

ALD: What will you be doing on mother’s day?

BA: I guess going to brunch with my parents! I’m lucky enough to have both my parents so…and getting cards and kisses from my kids.

ALD: And flowers, hopefully. That’s always a nice feature of mother’s day. But really, mother’s day should be each of our respective birthdays in some sense. You were speaking about some family member…

BA: My father-in-law thought on your birthday you should go and honour your mother because she went through so much. And he would know, he put his parents through a lot.

ALD: Well, we all do. Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you on the publication of this book and I hope it goes far, far afield for you.

BA: Thank you very much. I hope people enjoy it.

ALD: A wonderful gift for mother’s day, perhaps more long lived than the usual cut flowers...

Beverly Akerman Interviewed by CBC HomeRun's Jeanette Kelly

The Meaning Of Children now available on Kindle!

 

Today was the day...CBC Montreal's HomeRun reigning summer queen, Jeanette Kelly, interviewed me for the program. We talked about motherhood, meaning, and The Giller Prize Reader's Choice Contest. (Feel free to suggest The Meaning Of Children be part of the longlist!!)

Jeannette asked for tips for would be writers--I told her writers should be relentless in pursuing their art and their success, and that they should continuouslyask themselves WWAAD--"What would an American do?"

I talked up the Quebec Writers' Federation and Ilona Martonfi.

I read from "Pie."

All in all, a vibrant, action-packed segment.

See if you agree:




And then, my car sorta died...but at least it happened on the way home from the interview and not on the Ville Marie Expressway, eh? ;)

Find HomeRun on Facebook or at their website here.

The Meaning of Children: on Radio CJAD AM 800 with Anne Lagacé Dowson

Follow @Beverly_Akerman



On Saturday, April 30th, I was interviewed by Anne Lagacé Dowson on her Saturday afternoon show on Radio Station CJAD AM 800 (that's Anne on the left!).

Ms. Dowson was extremely complimentary about The Meaning of Children, which she called an "antidote to the commercialized side of Mother's Day." She called me brave for my story about abortion, "Like Jeremy Irons," and said the book pulls no punches in capturing how challenging parenthood can be.

She said many other fine things about the book. Watch it here



 

Or mosey on over to Youtube and have a listen...