The ubiquitous nature of cancer and its widespread prevalence does little to detract from the fear that is associated with this disease. Despite being the subject of intense worldwide research, the complete cure to cancer continues to elude us in part due to the sheer number of different types of cancers that can afflict us. It spares neither the old nor the young, not the poor or the rich. While the Western world witnessed Angelina Jolie undergo a preventive mastectomy on discovering that she carries pathogenic cancer causing genes, we Indians had another story that hit closer to home when the doe-eyed Bollywood beauty of yesteryear, Mumtaz, announced in the early 2000s that she suffered from breast cancer. One may even choose to look at her story for inspiration, following a long course of chemotherapies and radiation treatments, she remains today, at the age of 72, cancer free.
