R.I.P.

A good friend of ours just died of brain radionecrosis, which is, as it sounds, the death of some part of the brain after radiation treatments. His treatments started many years ago, when he was still a teenager. He leaves his parents, his brother, his wife, and his very young child. We'll pay a shiva call on Sunday.

Sometimes I wonder whether in 200 years, people will look back on the way we treated cancer--poisoning and burning it out--and be amazed at our stupidity. It will look like trepanning or bloodletting or any number of pointless, painful treatments used by our forefathers and mothers.

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