In the June 2007 edition of Harper’s Magazine there is a very interesting article entitled “Chemo World, Surviving the Cancer Unit” by Sallie Tisdale. The article is written from a general cancer perspective.

What makes this article a little different is that Ms Tisdale is an oncology nurse at Providence Portland Medical Center in Portland, OR. The article is written from her perspective and discusses her insight into the workings of a cancer unit.
Most articles of this type are written by patients or doctors, not nurses who are charged with the actual administration of the chemo drugs.

In addition, Dr. Walter Urba the director of the center makes a profound statement saying “We’re disappointed that we don’t have vaccine yet” (to treat cancer) “But there will be vaccines”.

Subscribers to Harpers will be able to read the article online, if you are not a subscriber you can read the article at your local library.

Joel T Nowak MA, MSW