The second of two programmes The Patient's Dilemma
A woman who held off her liver cancer for seven years to nurse a sick husband; another whose inoperable tumour ' melted away ' when she left the stage to start up business with her husband, but then died from it when they were robbed -these moving stories illustrate the proposal that the cause and cure of cancer are linked to state of mind.
We see ' meditation' used in attempts to control the body's response; and visit the controversial Simonton clinic in Dallas, Texas, where patients are taught to ' visualise ' bizarre images of their own natural defences attacking the tumour.
The dilemma for any patient with advanced cancer is whether to round off a failing life with dignity, or to fight on to the last. But who should have the responsibility for making that choice? The doctor? Or the patient whose life is in the balance?
Narrator COLIN BLAKELY
Film editor FITZROY BOULTING
Written and produced by ALEC NISBETT