Waging War on War Metaphors in Cancer and COVID-19
As oncologists, we are all too familiar with the use of war metaphors in clinical practice, which dates at least as far back as President Richard Nixon’s declaration of a “War on Cancer” via the National Cancer Act in 1971, when he referred to cancer as a “relentless and insidious enemy.” 1, 2 The war on cancer, although it has been slow, has been successful; the age-adjusted mortality rate for invasive cancers in the United States has decreased by at least 23% in the 40 years since Nixon’s declaration,
