How We Fight: In Public and In Private

Fit and under fifty when diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, Newsweek reporter Jonathan Alter talks about his own battle with cancer in the wake of a week of high-profile recurrences. Now in remission, as Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow were until last week, Alter  describes managing the fear survivors live with.

"A friend compares his semiannual scans to visiting a parole officer. When the scans are clean, it's worth another six months of freedom, though with no guarantee of extra time for good behavior."  Those who criticize Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow, he adds, are "busybodies who don't have cancer, but feel free to judge the complex choices made by those who do." (More cancer stories.)