Preface

The great progress in cancer control could not have been possible without the
single-minded focus on cancer, almost at exclusion of anything else. To control
cancer, one should not to be distracted by the side effects of treatment and often
sheer physical and mental exhaustion that accompanies cancer and its treatment.
Only by putting these aside, one can grasp a chance of changing the course of this
terrible disease.
But as an oncologist who has treated patients for nearly a quarter of the century,
I face the sobering truth that while the frontiers in the war against cancer are
advancing every day, the lay of the land is defined by more than cancer alone. It
takes a few years after the cancer diagnosis before one can embrace the joy of
cancer survivorship, but also face the tragedy of long-standing consequences of
cancer treatment, and the question of could have these been prevented? With more
cancers becoming treatable and treatments better tolerated, we need to learn to
better balance the benefits and risks of treatment in light of coexisting conditions
that the patient is already dealing with.