What we're reading ... March 19, 2010

Each week the staff of CURE shares some of what they've been reading the past week with our readers. Please let us know what you think and what you've been reading, too!Oncology Nursing

Oncology nurse Theresa Brown, RN, is a regular contributor to The New York Times, and this week she writes about violence in the oncology ward in "Violence on the Oncology Ward." Violence against nurses is a huge issue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 48 percent of all non-fatal injuries from occupational assaults occur in the health care setting. And as Brown relates, oncology nurses are not immune.

Lena Huang

Fitness & Nutrition EditorMarriage

In Marie Claire's "For Better, For Worse," Diane Reiners talks about how cancer has affected her marriage, for better and for worse. While her husband deals with a disfiguring, terminal diagnosis of tongue cancer, they try to make the best of it. "Cancer doesn't make it easier to love someone," she says. "Cancer is hard work; our marriage is easy. But taking care of him can leave me without much time to take care of myself--I don't go for checkups with my own doctors and I quit going to the gym. Still, there is nothing--nothing--I'd rather be doing than being there with him."It's a very powerful story, and unfortunately, one that doesn't have a happy ending. But knowing how much they loved each other, it does make you appreciate the journey.

Elizabeth Whittington

Managing Editor, curetoday.comTeens and Cancer

"In Cancer Fight, Teens Don't Fit In" is about teenagers and how they have different struggles than children or adult cancer patients. They are in an in-between stage and generally lack the proper support they need and sort of fall into this "gap." It also talks a little bit about why teenagers generally have poorer cure rates than children or adults--from not being involved in clinical trials to just being more difficult to treat since they aren't children, and they aren't adults. You can read more about teen in our First Line Childhood Cancer section "Teens Helping Teens," which discusses a program called Teen Connector.

Bunmi Ishola

Editorial assistant