One of my earliest experiences with cancer was watching my grandmother live with breast cancer. I was too young to really understand the disease at that time, but old enough to see quite clearly the impact it had on my grandmother and the rest of my family. I look back and wonder if that early experience with such a devastating disease was part of the push that led me to medicine. It has certainly led me to have a greater respect for the patients fighting the disease, and the physicians treating it. This page will discuss breast cancer, screening, diagnosis, and management.

My very first clinical experience as a 3rd year medical student was my internal medicine rotation. It was there that I met a patient who had been admitted to hospital due to hypercalcemia, a complication of his newly diagnosed lymphoma. The cancer had caused a disbalance in the electrolytes in his blood, specifically by increasing the calcium to beyond normal levels. As a result, he was suffering from weakness, confusion, and extreme nausea. It was a presentation that I ended up seeing several times on that rotation, and throughout the rest of the year. However, this one particular patient stood out to me. Not because of his symptoms, or even his diagnosis, but because of his wife.

Take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Most people don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about their lungs, but as a part of our respiratory system they provide a vital service to our body. They allow us to breathe. Lung cancer includes several types of cancer that start in the lungs. That is, when the cells that make up the lungs no longer grow or function as they are meant to. In this page we will discuss lung cancer and its management.

I spoke to a patient once, who walked me through the greatest milestones in their life. They talked about graduation from college, getting married, buying their first house and having children. Amongst these major life events, they also listed the day they received their cancer diagnosis. At the time, it was very difficult to understand the depth of impact that a diagnosis like this could have. I had nothing in my own life for which to compare it to. However, there was one thing that I could clearly understand. Like buying a house, or graduating from school, a cancer diagnosis was an event that could change someone's life profoundly. And unlike the other examples that were given to me by this patient, most people will never have the opportunity to prepare for news like that. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that cancer comes hand in hand with deep and difficult emotions. That isn't to say that everyone's experience with cancer will be the same, or even similar for that matter. However, this page will talk about some of the most common psychological impacts that cancer can have, and what resources are available for those who experience them.

During my third year of medical school, I had the privilege to spend a few weeks working at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, under the brilliant medical oncologists practicing there. I spoke to many patients in that period, some of whom had been living with cancer for years -- maybe even decades -- and some who were receiving information on their diagnosis for the very first time. In my brief experience, one of the most common questions I was asked, particularly by new patients, was: "What stage is my cancer?" Many people have a general idea of what cancer staging represents. Hearing "Late stage" or "Stage 4" has negative connotations to most people, whether they really understand what it means or not. On this page, we will discuss how cancer staging is performed, and the basics of what it means for a patient and their cancer experience. 

The moment someone receives a cancer diagnosis can seem like the starting line of a long and grueling marathon. It is often some of the most difficult news that someone can receive in their lifetime, and the diagnosis itself has a massive impact on what kinds of care and treatment a patient will receive. For this reason, it is essential that an individual’s cancer journey starts with as specific and as accurate a diagnosis as possible. Not all cancers are diagnosed in the same way, but this page will discuss some of the more common methods.

Everyone you ask will have something slightly different to say about what cancer is to them. Some would say its a disease. Others might tell you a personal story of someone they know with cancer, or maybe even their own experience. Others still might dive into the complicated and dynamic world of cancer research, new data, studies, and treatments. We have movies, books, even songs about cancer, and yet the disease itself can often seem like a big black cloud of the unknown. So, what is cancer really?