Cancer Diagnosis Doubles Suicide Rate In Patients

[Guest guest]

Maybe oncologists could just quit playing God by giving a time line and

statistic rates that are skewed to begin with. What a breath of fresh air

that would be! I would also suspect that some, if not all, of these

suicides happen *after* chemo and radiation have taken their toll.

 

Yes, cancer patients need support, but probably NOT the type that Kendal is

talking about. Most cancer support groups end up being the most depressing

and doom-gloom place a cancer patient could ever be. The cancer patient

needs hope, encouragement, understanding and belief that healing is

possible. They need to know that many people heal from cancer and that they

can, also. But most importantly they need to know that they must be willing

to step-out-of-the-box in order for that healing to happen. Conventional

medicine just does not have the answers that are needed.

 

Loretta

 

 

Cancer diagnosis doubles suicide rate in patients

 

(NewsTarget.com) Cancer patients run at least double the risk of committing

suicide compared to the general population, according to a new study

published in the Annals of Oncology.

 

Dr. Wayne Kendal, a radiation oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital Regional

Cancer Center, conducted an analysis of 1.3 million cancer patients in the

United States, and found that 19 out of every 1,000 males diagnosed with

cancer committed suicide, while four out of every 1,000 female cancer

patients took their own lives.

 

While the general American population has a suicide rate of 10.6 suicides

out of every 100,000 per year, roughly 24 cancer patients out of every

100,000 commit suicide. Kendal found that gender, prognosis, type of cancer,

stage of the disease, ethnicity and family situation all contributed to

cancer patients' suicide risk.

 

" If we were to draw a composite picture of the patient most at risk, this

would be a widowed white male, with a new diagnosis of possibly head and

neck cancer or multiple myeloma, with widespread and perhaps high-grade

disease or maybe a history of other cancers, " Kendal said.

 

" By contrast, a patient with decreased risk of suicide would be a woman of

African-American heritage, with perhaps colorectal or cervical cancer, and

living with her spouse. "

 

According to Kendal's research, male cancer patients were nearly five times

more likely to commit suicide than female patients, which holds true for

suicide rates in the general population as well. Kendal also found that

cancers of the bladder, lungs, head, bronchus, neck and esophagus, and

myeloma all accounted for higher rates of suicide.

 

Though he was not clear on individual cancer patients' reasons for taking

their own lives, Kendal said it could be because of depression, fear of

pain, a desire not to be a burden to others or the desire to die with

dignity.

 

" What we as oncologists need to do, we need to realize that people need

support, " Kendal said. " Oncology patients are not an island. We need to make

sure that everybody has support. It's not just treating diseases, it's

treating the person -- the holistic approach that I wanted to foster. "

 

Natural health advocate Mike Adams said Kendal's study was important because

many cancer diagnoses are false positives.

 

" Breast cancer screening has recently been shown to be extremely dangerous,

harming 10 times as many women as it helps, " Adams said. " And now this

suicide risk emerges as yet another danger to women who are falsely

diagnosed with breast cancer due to faulty screening procedures or the

wishful thinking of cancer centers looking for increased revenues. "