I’ll confess: I’m terrified of getting cancer. Again. I’m often reminded by my primary care doctor that cancer is a “disease of aging,” meaning that cancer risk increases dramatically each decade after age 50. Being 60-something puts me in the demographic crosshairs, and my health history compounds my risk. In my twenties I was treated with high-dose chemotherapy for testicular cancer, which created a risk of developing a different form of cancer later on. I’ve got a family history of lung cancer (my mom) and ovarian cancer (my sister), and doctors have spotted several precancerous polyps over the course of regular colonoscopies.
