thank you for that post, Brian. FWIW, Gail, I had a very positive attitude all through (and before and after)treatment. I complied with everything I was told to do and even tried some extra things like gargling with aloe until it burned unbelievably. The Radiation Oncology and Medical oncology nurses and technicians thought, and told me, I got through the treatment amazingly well--but this really didn't have to do with my physical state (I ended up in the hospital at the end neutropenic and running a fever after all), it had to do with the fact that I was very persistent, completely complaint, kept taking amifostine even though it made me vomit almost every day, didn't cry, didn't talk about quitting treatment or show up late, etc.(in fact was pushy about getting them to treat me on time because it was important for the amifostine to work right).

And despite all that I have had a long slow recovery with major complications in terms of swallowing. And am sitting here almost a year after I started treatment hoping that more risky surgery will help me to swallow well enough just to get off the PEG tube (I have very little hope that I'll be able to eat well enough to travel or eat out easily if at all for the rest of my life). To read someone suggesting that somehow this negative outcome is related to my attitude not being positive enough is, quite honestly, somehwat infuriating. It's frustrating enough to me that I'm in this spot from the treatment I got to start with! I can just imagine how it would feel to someone who fought well and hard through treatment and then has suffered a recurrence.

Anyway, I've seen too much of the reverse. My Dad, when he had cancer 22 years ago, was sure it was going to kill him and had a horrible attitude both in terms of optimism and in terms of compliance (fortunately he ahd my mom riding herd on him), and yet he has managed to be quite a long term survivor. I've read about several patients here on this board who sounded like they had horrible attitudes and they bounced back much more quickly than I did with my sureness that I would lick this thing and recover quickly.

I agree that placebo effects are real and shouldn't be dismissed but I think it's quite a leap to assumoing that because Barry or anyone else recovered quickly it is primarily due to their positive attitude and expectations or that people who don;'t recover quickly are somehow deficient in this regard.

Nelie