Word: cassileth
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...would have to have your physician send a letter seeking my input," he says. But when you're selling books by the thousands, there's no way to control desperate readers' attempts to freelance themselves a cure. "That's precisely why people like Null are so problematic," comments Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center...
...study, which began in 1982, a team led by Dr. Barrie Cassileth at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center in Philadelphia developed questionnaires for 204 patients with advanced cancer and another 155 who had been treated either for breast cancer or melanoma and were susceptible to a recurrence of the disease. The cancer victims were asked about such attitudes as satisfaction with their jobs and life in general, feelings about their health, and their degree of hopelessness or helplessness -- factors that some studies have shown to affect longevity. Using accepted psychological rating procedures, the team compiled psychosocial scores that measured...
...Cassileth was adamant. "Certainly, there is a role for mental state and emotional factors in illness," she said. "We just don't know what it is. We do know that it is not a direct cause-and-effect relationship." Some of those who insist that it is, she said, are actually causing harm. "There are increasing numbers of practitioners around the country who offer mind tricks as cures for cancer" -- a trend she called "most unfortunate" because patients are drawn away from conventional therapy, which "may very well help them...
...Both Cassileth and Angell saw another unfortunate implication in the notion of conquering disease by positive thinking. "If the cancer spreads, despite every attempt to think positively," Angell asked, "is the patient at fault?" She pointed to remarks made by Humana Institute's Dr. Allan Lansing, who at a press conference expressed concern that Artificial Heart Recipient William Schroeder did not have the right attitude after his first stroke. The implication, she said, is that Schroeder was in some way responsible for his condition. At a time when patients are already suffering from disease, Angell concluded, "they should...
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