Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells in the body grow wild. Like an enemy army, they invade and spread, taking over different organs and other parts of the body. This serious illness is one of the most widely researched diseases in medical history. Still medical doctors and researchers have not yet found an all out cure.

You may know someone, maybe a parent, family member or even a friend who has cancer. Ten thousand of the one million people who develop the disease each year are teenagers. Knowing how to communicate your own feelings and questions to the cancer victim is important. Also important is being willing to listen to his or her fears, frustrations and hopes. It’s not a good idea to keep thoughts or feelings about illness bottled up inside. Doing this causes both the sick person and you to suffer in silence.

Openly talking about the disease and listening gives emotional and social support. Since the unknown is always more frightening than the known, honestly discussing cancer takes some of the “fear factor” out of it. Should talking about the illness become uncomfortable for anyone, respect his or her wishes not to talk about cancer. You might want to share an informational or positive article or two on the subject instead of talking about it. Many articles stress the fact that while medical science does not yet have a cure for all types of cancer, when discovered early, many can be treated.

Knowledge is power! Learn all you can about cancer; how it can be prevented and how it is treated. Armed with this information, both you and the cancer victim you know can gain new hope and strength. Hope and strength will come from realizing just how far medical science has come in the last 20 years in conquering cancer.