title: [Images of cancer: metaphors in the literature].
abstract: Metaphors of cancer were once rejected by Susan Sontag, because their existence slandered the patient. There are a number of very common metaphors about cancer and the question raised is as to whether forbidding metaphors is solving the problem Susan Sontag put to the fore. We conclude that getting rid of metaphors also makes it impossible for patients to use metaphors to feel better.
authors.affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Medisch Centrum, afd. Metamedica, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ak.oderwald@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Arko K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Oderwald
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D019365:Metaphor; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological