The Myths of Cancer

The prevailing picture is that cancer is an outside invader that overruns our body. The treatment is to remove or destroy the “thing” cancer. Success is the complete removal from the body.

However researchers are making new discoveries that challenge this static view. This is opening doors to new practices that engage and treat cancer as a physiological, environmental and social process–as an activity.

Join community activists and cancer patients Doug Balder and Dr. Susan Massad, and oncologist Dr. Nicholas Rohs as they conversationally take on some of the myths and conduct a practical-philosophical holistic exploration of cancer. We will explore new ways to perform cancer in our lives, our community and our world.

Dr. Susan Massad is a retired clinician and medical educator. A primary care physician she has researched and taught in the arena of doctor-patient communication for over 51 years and continues to pursue a life-long interest in the social-cultural-biological dimensions of health and wellness. She is a faculty member of the East Side Institute where she leads workshops/revolutionary conversations on issues of aging, memory loss, health and wellness. Five years ago Dr. Massad was diagnosed with breast cancer and, subsequently, colon cancer and has been exploring the cancer experience through the methodological philosophical lens of social therapeutics.

Douglas Balder is an architect who has planned, designed, and built award winning museums, museum exhibitions, and cultural centers. For the past 35 years, he has helped to build the All Stars Project, Inc., a socially innovative afterschool development approach and unique partnership between poor young people and affluent professional adults. He has written, with Dr. Massad, and published philosophical essays about cancer narratives since being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 2015.