A Hollywood Movie Takes on Cancer

This weekend I saw the movie “50/50,” the story of a young cancer patient who faced even odds of surviving his disease. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see a cancer movie — after all, I see cancer often enough in real life on the oncology ward where I work.

But what I liked about this movie is that it didn’t give cancer the Hollywood treatment. One of the messages was that while cancer certainly is life-changing, it doesn’t necessarily change your life. That may mean that a bad relationship is still bad after cancer. Or that if members of your family annoy you, they will still annoy you when you have cancer. However, you may realize you care about them more than you thought you did, and you may also discover how much they care about you.

The filmmakers also manage to capture the fear that the word “cancer” can instill in people, with special effects that include showing a patient’s vision fading out and a doctor’s voice drifting off into the distance. Every nurse knows that when patients hear “the C word,” they often don’t hear anything else you’re trying to tell them.

Throughout the movie, health care workers aren’t perfect, either. A doctor doesn’t say hello to his patient, but sits down at his desk and dictates a note filled with medical terminology. A grim-faced surgeon explains a series of unexpected complications without telling the panicked family how the patient is doing.

Although the movie was about a young patient, it reminded me of a patient I once cared for who was in his 60s. He hated being in the hospital, and got to the point where he would swear at the staff and seemed angrily depressed. He was having family troubles and wasn’t home to run the family business. His wife worked six days a week and couldn’t visit most days. When it came time for him to undergo a bone marrow transplant, his spirits seemed so low that I wasn’t sure he would be able to make it through emotionally.

But just a few months ago I saw him in the hospital hallway. He’d come back to visit, and his hair had grown. He was a different person. He told us how he worked only when he felt like it — a complete change from his work habits before his illness — and how his family problems had resolved. Amazingly, he looked happy.

“I’m measuring my survival in years now,” he said.

That doesn’t mean that cancer is an “opportunity” or “the best thing that ever happened” to anyone; it isn’t. Not even close. But whether a person is 26 or 66, facing death can bring about change. And sometimes, maybe often, it offers a fresh look at a person’s life and makes them want more out of it.