Chemotherapy kills cancer, but who heals the soul?

At 42, Mr X – a devoted husband and father of two young children – didn’t smoke, barely drank, exercised regularly and had no family history of cancer. When he developed a niggling lower back pain that would not go away, he finally agreed to see a doctor. After scans, blood tests and a biopsy, came the shocking diagnosis: stage 4 cancer. Rare, aggressive, and widespread.

As I (Akhil Chopra) prepared to meet him and his wife for the first time in my clinic, even as a doctor with years of experience, I felt this quiet dread. How could I explain that someone like him had an advanced terminal illness? The cancer had already eaten into his bones and invaded his vital organs.