Thinking about Hope in the Care of Cancer Patients

Abstract

Medical science has delivered extraordinary advances during my forty-year career as a medical oncologist. But might the science's justified prestige unhelpfully diminish our respect for other needed forms for understanding the human experience? This is a critical issue for physicians, who may be present with patients at moments of profound existential challenge. By equating hope with scientific progress and limiting its own role to purveyor of the latest that science has on offer, the medical profession may unwittingly add to the burden on patients with advanced cancer. Humanistic understandings of hope drawn from philosophy, theology, and literature serve as essential—at their best, equally true—partners to the portrait offered by experimental science. Physicians, in their manner of interacting with patients, may serve as both messengers of and models for a deeper understanding of hope that fully embodies the significance of human life and sustains patients when they most need support.