Chine, Russians, and Muslims have been known to avoid treatment in an attempt to keep their condition secret. This taboo also plays a big role towards the higher cancer mortality rates in some communities. But with rapid advances in medical treatment and inspirational celebrity cancer survivors like Lance Armstrong and Steve Jobs, cancer is slowly coming out of the closet.

The term “cancer survivor” means different things to different people. There was a time when a cancer survivor was any person who had been diagnosed with the disease, and then successfully had treatment that freed them from malignancy for a period of one year. But now with greater understanding of the disease, the definition of a cancer survivor is also changing.

A cancer survivor today is anyone who has, or has previously had any variant of the disease and is still alive today. The term survivor recognizes the challenges and struggles that the person has to go through every day to live with the disease. The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship has expanded the definition of survivor to include not only the patient, but all family and friends are directly affected by the changes in a person following the diagnosis of these growths. This can be caretakers, parents, children, siblings, or anyone close to an individual that experiences the changes wrought by the disease and its treatment.

Under this expanded definition, survivors include those left behind when a person loses the battle with this invasion of their body and passes away. Many changes in a person's life take place from the time a close relative or friend is diagnosed with the disease throughout the course of treatment, and after the treatments have been finished, whether the person recovers or ultimately succumbs.

Now that more people are surviving cancer, more attention than ever is focused on the quality of life for cancer survivors. Behavioral researchers have conducted studies to learn more about the problems survivors face. Cancer was once a word that people were afraid to speak in public, and people rarely admitted to being a cancer survivor. Now, many celebrities and national leaders have very openly discussed their cancer experiences.

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