Ten Things You Should Never Say To A Person With Cancer…And One Thing You Should

I get it. People so often just don’t know what to say to someone with cancer.

It’s a shock when someone you care about has received a life-changing diagnosis. Our natural instinct at times of trouble is to rush in with well-meaning phrases and encouraging thoughts.

It may feel to the person saying these things that they are being supportive, but it’s all too easy to say the wrong thing.

So what should you avoid saying to a cancer patient? The following list includes some of the most common things that we in the cancer community have heard from well-wishers. At the end of the list I share the one thing I would have most liked to have heard instead.

1. You’ll beat this

Probably the top-most thing that people say when they want to be supportive is that you’re strong and will beat cancer. While we all hope for the best outcome, we cannot actually be sure of the outcome of the disease for anyone. As breast cancer blogger Nancy Stordahl writes in What Does Beating Cancer Mean Anyway? [1] ”Struggling to live up to some gold standard of what beating cancer means, adds to the already exhausting burden. We need to stop patronizing and judging cancer patients based on misguided battle talk analogies. Cancer isn’t an opponent in some war game you can stomp out by mindset or determination.”

2. You’re so brave

An extension of “you’ll beat this.” This can come across as quite patronizing – especially when it’s followed by a statement like “I couldn’t do it.” The truth is we don’t feel particularly brave, we just don’t have a choice. We do what we have to do to get through treatment the best we can. By promoting belief in bravery and stoicism in the face of cancer, society creates unfair expectations of cancer patients and deprives us of an outlet for our darker fears.

3. My aunt had the same cancer and she was cured

While I’m happy your aunt recovered from cancer, no two cancers are alike. Cancer is a complicated disease and chances are her cancer is not the same as mine. An alternative version of this statement concerns an aunt who died from the “same cancer”. Please don’t go there with us.

4. What’s your prognosis? What are your odds of surviving?

Never, ever ask anyone this question. It is highly personal, intrusive, and insensitive. Enough said.

5. Have you tried [insert latest miracle supplement or diet]. I hear it can cure cancer.

There’s no shortage of advice urging cancer patients to eat a particular food, juice religiously, or try a miracle supplement, however, there’s no scientific evidence that these work and many are downright harmful.

6. The stress of [your divorce, bereavement, job loss] probably caused your cancer.

This is a variation of the “you’re to blame” for getting cancer brigade. “Did you smoke?” asked of lung cancer patients. “Did you breastfeed?” directed at breast cancer patients. All said with the implication that you should/shouldn’t have done a certain thing and really it’s your own fault for getting cancer. In fact, using a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer risk, across many tissue types, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center published a study in 2015 which concluded that two-thirds of the variation in adult cancer risk across tissues can be explained primarily by “bad luck.” In other words, a major contributing factor to cancer is in fact beyond anyone’s control.

7. But you don’t look sick

This sounds almost accusatory. As if to be a card-carrying cancer patient you must look the part of a cancer “sufferer”. As cancer patients, we have good days and bad days. On the good days, we look just fine. Other days not so much. How we look is not a reflection of what we are going through.

8. It’s only hair, it will grow back

On the flip side of #7, there are those comments you receive when you do show signs of being a cancer patient. When you lose your hair after starting chemotherapy, you may find your distress dismissed with “it’s only hair, it will grow back” or “lucky you have a nice shaped-head – you can carry off the bald look”.

9. Look on the bright side, at least you will lose weight without having to diet

The crassness of this statement seems hard to believe – but yes, it has been said to cancer patients. Another variation on the looking on the bright side theme – breast cancer patients quite often have to deal with people saying to them “at least you’ll get a free boob job.”

10. You must stay positive

I’ve saved the best for last. Ok, I admit that I caved in when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer to the pressure to be positive because it reassured the people around me. While I accept that for some people, maintaining a positive attitude is a valid coping mechanism, for myself, and for many others, being asked to always show our sunny side is a denial of the times we are in pain, anxious, and afraid.

So what should you say to someone with cancer?

Sometimes there are no right words to say. Sometimes the best you can do is listen, without judgment, without offering any well-meaning advice.

Author Rachel Naomi Remen says it better than I ever could.

“Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.”

Having listened first, you could then say something like the following:

“I can’t begin to understand what you are going through/ I am so sorry you have to go through this. I am here for you. What one thing can I do for you right now?”

Knowing we’ve been heard and understood opens up a space for us to feel freer to ask for what we truly need at this moment.

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[1] Nancy’s Point What Does Beating Cancer Mean Anyway?