Tumor. Malignancy. Growth. Abnormality.

Frightening words describing an equally terrifying disease: cancer. Most, if not all, of us have known someone, somewhere who has experienced this traumatic illness in some form. We know what it can accomplish physically and psychologically.

Unlike other life-threatening diseases, cancer can strike any person at any time. It is not transmitted through blood or urine; it is not carried in rats or floating around in bacteria. Cancer knows no racial, religious or income-bracket boundaries. Cancer does not discriminate.

The disease goes well beyond the body in which it lives and spreads, affecting everyone who knows the victim. For years, the words itself was whispered in conversations because it was simply “not discussed.”

With the open-minded 70’s and 80’s, the illness was thrust more into society’s forefront—but to the point where maps of Ronald Reagan’s colon splashed across t.v. sets and Barbara Bush’s lip growth was diagrammed in newspapers and magazines.

Despite the increased attention, however, a cure for cancer has yet to be found. Though polio, scarlet fever and tuberculosis have widely been eliminated, malignant tumors remain. Millions will die from cancer this year alone, several will perish by the time you finish this paragraph.

Depressing facts, yes; something to be ignored, no. Cancer has affected me in many ways so far in my life, claiming the lives of people I’ve known and cared for.

I don’t think I noticed it much as a child. At great-Aunt Gert’s wake, I ate cherry danishes and stayed out of everyone’s way, as relatives silently mouthed “cancer” over my head.

When I entered adolescence, things changed. More relatives and family friends got the disease and subsequently died. My mom was diagnosed and ultimately underwent surgery and chemotherapy.

It’s not a subject my family likes to discuss, but it’s been almost five years and so far she is disease-free. I complain incessently about her cigarette habit (which she better give up—are you listening, Mom?), but am lucky she’s around to bug.

Others weren’t so fortunate, however. Two of my parent’s friends recently lost their battles; one of my old high school teachers succumbed last year, and a few more people I know are in remission. If you wondered why I’m interested in/upset over cancer, that’s why.