The medical uses of Hope

"If I could say only one thing to cancer patients who want to live (not everyone does), I would repeat the words of the wise man who spoke to the cancer patients in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Never give up hope. You can fight for your life, even in the face of tremendous odds. Give yourself permission to hope, even in the face of all the statistics that physicians may present to you. Statistics are only statistics. They are not you. There is no such thing as false hope. I saw the truth of this in my father's experience, and in the experience of many other people with cancer who have far outlived their prognosis."
Hope is a powerful therapeutic tool - and doctors need to learn how to use it wisely !