15 May 2016 - In an era of rapidly proliferating, precisely targeted treatments, every cancer case has to be played by ear.

The thought that every individual cancer might require a specific individualized treatment can be profoundly unsettling. Michael Lerner, a writer who worked with cancer patients, once likened the experience of being diagnosed with cancer to being parachuted out of a plane without a map or compass; now it is the oncologist who feels parachuted onto a strange landscape, with no idea which way to go.

There are often no previous probabilities, and even fewer certainties. The stakes feel higher, the successes more surprising and the failures more personal.

Earlier, I could draw curtain upon curtain of blame around a patient.

For more details, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/oncologist-improvisation.html?emc=edit_th_20160515&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=20088616&_r=0