TagCancer

Cancer Survivors

Should people living with cancer be referred to as cancer survivors? Mary from Delafield, Wisconsin, a breast cancer survivor herself, doesn’t like the term. Nor does Indiana University professor emerita Susan Gubar, who discusses this in an...

downwinder

downwinder  n.— «Nuclear testing in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s released radiation into the atmosphere that settled in states far away from the original test site. Researchers determined that certain elements of this fallout, such as the...

Talibangical

Talibangical  adj.— «Rounds is proposing free HPV vaccines to be distributed by the state. The talibangical far right don’t want it and are probably pretty steamed that Rounds would want to help people not die from cancer.» —“ Pendulum Swing In...

grasshopper effect

grasshopper effect  n.— «Every human in the world carries in his or her body traces of POPs, which circulate globally through a process known as the “grasshopper effect” and include such chemicals as dioxins, furans, DDT and PCBs, which are agents...

meso

meso  n.— «At 42, he was dead. The killer: mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos.…Today, a group of people affected by the deadly disease, which they refer to as “meso” for simplicity’s sake, gathered at the Marriott in downtown’s Renaissance...

zipper

zipper  n.— «When he was running around shirtless this summer, Wyatt realized most other kids don’t have surgical scars—or “zippers,” as he calls them.» —“Fighting cancer, as a patient and a lobbyist” by Nina Petersen-Perlman Star...