My 'Injury'
2023-10-20 · explainer · Hank · 4:14 · watch on YouTube
Topic: Health (also: Personal life) · mode: Explainer · tags: heavy topic, self correction
After his son Orin calls Hank's cancer his 'injury', Hank argues that 'cancer' is not one disease but hundreds to billions of different ones, that calling them all 'cancer' breeds hopelessness and the false belief that we have failed to cure it, and that we must cure cancers, not cancer.
What is said
The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).
00:00:00 — Orin calls Hank's cancer 'your injury'; how the illness looked to a child
- ★★ Hank says this morning, watching an old Vlogbrothers video with him, his son Orin said that was Dada before his injury, and Hank did not know what to say. — 00:00:00 · Orin Green, Vlogbrothers
- ★★ Hank says that to Orin it made sense: while Hank was ill Daddy couldn't do much, parts of him hurt badly and he couldn't pick him up or wrestle; they called it cancer without explaining what cancer was. — 00:00:13 · Orin Green, cancer
00:00:29 — There is no such thing as cancer, only cancers: hundreds of pathways, billions of genetically distinct cancers
- ★★★ Hank says everyone is confused about cancer, epitomized by still calling cancers 'cancer', and he is on a mission to get this to stop. — 00:00:29 · cancer
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★★★ Hank says there is no such thing as cancer, just as there is no such thing as virus: there are cancers and viruses, as you get an injury, not injury. — 00:00:45 · cancer
“There is no such thing as cancer just like there's no such thing as virus.”
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★★★ Hank says cancer is anywhere between hundreds and billions of diseases. — 00:01:00 · cancer
- ★★ Hank says the lower count reflects common pathways to cancer; classical Hodgkin lymphoma is one, so its cells behave alike and patients have similar prognoses and treatment responses. — 00:01:05 · cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma
- ★★ Hank says the upper count reflects that every cancer is genetically distinct, so two people with the same kind of classical Hodgkin lymphoma can respond differently to treatment. — 00:01:27 · cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma
- ★★ Hank says by the time a cancer is advanced there is much genetic variation within the body's cancer population, which is why late-stage cancer is so hard to treat. — 00:01:50 · cancer
00:02:06 — Two harms of calling cancers 'cancer' (hopelessness, belief we failed to cure it); we must cure cancers; injury is the more accurate word
- ★★★ Hank grants this will seem pedantic, but says calling cancers 'cancer' does harm in at least two clear ways he has experienced. — 00:02:06 · cancer
- ★★ Hank says first, people who watched someone die of a cancer assume another person's cancer will go the same way, creating hopelessness and sometimes resistance to treatment. — 00:02:14 · cancer
- ★★ Hank says a friend, on hearing of his cancer, started to treat him as if he were already dead, thinking cancer is cancer. — 00:02:33
- ★★★ Hank says second, it breeds the belief that despite huge money and effort we have failed to cure cancer; that is wrong, because cancer is not a disease but a kind of disease. — 00:02:40 · cancer
- ★★ Hank compares cancer to bacterial infections: most are curable but some aren't and people still die of them; likewise some cancers can be cured, some cannot, many in between. — 00:03:05 · cancer
- ★★ Hank says the US recently passed a milestone: more than half of people diagnosed with cancer will not be killed by it, either cured or dying with it rather than of it. — 00:03:25 · United States, cancer
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★★★ Hank says, though it sounds nihilistic, a cure for cancer cannot exist because there are at least hundreds of different cancers: we must cure cancers, which is more work. — 00:03:35 · cancer
“We don't get to cure cancer. We have to cure cancers.”
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★★ Hank says glioblastoma is as different from Hodgkin lymphoma as Ebola is from the common cold. — 00:03:45 · Hodgkin lymphoma
- ★★★ Hank says, weirdly, calling his cancer an injury is more accurate for him than calling it cancer, since we understand that not all injuries are the same. — 00:04:00 · cancer
In the description and comments
- ★ The description says Hank responded to his cancer diagnosis by reading about 20 nonfiction books on how cancers work. — video description · cancer
- ★★ The description says the overarching thing those books all knew but rarely said is that 'cancer' is a dumb word. — video description · cancer
- ★★ In a channel comment, Hank concedes a viewer's point that calling 'the common cold' one thing was a slip he noticed as he said it. — creator comment
- ★★ In a channel comment, Hank says the data do not show cancer is predominantly metabolic: almost all cancers involve both poor DNA repair and odd metabolism, and diet cannot control it. — creator comment · cancer
- ★★ In a channel comment, Hank recommends Nick Lane's book Transformer, which he finds fascinating, instead of 'cancer is a metabolic disease' influencers. — creator comment
Threads in this video
- update · Hank's Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis and chemotherapy (2023) — Hank says this morning, watching an old Vlogbrothers video with him, his son Orin said that was Dada before his injury, and Hank did not know what to say. (00:00:00)
- retold · Hank's Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis and chemotherapy (2023) — Hank says that to Orin it made sense: while Hank was ill Daddy couldn't do much, parts of him hurt badly and he couldn't pick him up or wrestle; they called it cancer without explaining what cancer was. (00:00:13)
- restate · Do human categories such as planet, fish or pizza mark real divisions in nature? — Hank says there is no such thing as cancer, just as there is no such thing as virus: there are cancers and viruses, as you get an injury, not injury. (00:00:45)
- restate · Do big problems have simple solutions? — Hank says, though it sounds nihilistic, a cure for cancer cannot exist because there are at least hundreds of different cancers: we must cure cancers, which is more work. (00:03:35)
Where the stories that moved here went next
- Hank's Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis and chemotherapy (2023) — told 34×, last update 2026; last: retold, 2026-10-09
Mentioned
Central: cancer · categorization
Also: Bacteria · common cold · Ebola virus disease · glioblastoma · Hodgkin lymphoma · Orin Green · United States · Virus
Only in the description or credits: Nick Lane · Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
Also centred on categorization: My Physicalmental Illness · Planets Don't Exist
Later videos replying to this one
- 2023-10-20 · Do I make things Simple?? (Hank) — corrects — “little update to my video” (00:00:00)
- 2023-10-24 · A Tale of Two Cancers (John) — continues (restate on Do human categories such as planet, fish or pizza mark real divisions in nature?) — John agrees with Hank's point that cancer is not really a disease but a category of diseases. (00:00:08)