Fireside Chats 1: What We Call "Cancer"

Between 1933 and 1944, Americans huddled around their radios to listen to the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States. Covering topics ranging from the 1936 recession to World War II, FDR titled these addresses "Fireside Chats", giving very high-concept topics a more personal, intimate feel. Let it never be said that Oncology for the Inquisitive Mind is above shamelessly cribbing ideas from history.

In this series, on the first Wednesday of each month, Josh and Michael will go away from their usual format of data dissection. They will instead turn their attention to a cancer-related article, film or other media and discuss it with the same convivial atmosphere of FDR. In this episode, they discuss a New York Times opinion piece from August 2023 titled "Not Everything We Call Cancer Should Be Called Cancer," trying to strike a balance between personalisation and de-escalation of management of low-risk, pre-cancerous lesions while also viewing such discussions from the perspective of patients.

Article discussed in this episode (subscription may be required):

Not Everything We Call Cancer Should Be Called Cancer, by Dr. Laura Esserman and Dr. Scott Eggener

Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/opinion/cancer-breast-prostate-treatment.html