In a book at home I came across a painting that features several panels, each depicting a stage in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. (Sorry but I can't recall the painter's name at the moment; perhaps I can find it and amend this post.) Each panel is accompanied by a legend at the bottom, as follows: The Symptom, The Treatment, The Diagnosis, The Fear, The First Oncologist, EST, The Second Oncologist, Nuclear Medicine, The Effects, --- [I forget!]---, The Enduring, and Hope.
Anyway, I can't think of what "EST" stands for. Presumably it is not eastern standard time. The first thing that came to mind was electroshock therapy, but that is not a cancer treatment. On the other hand, perhaps the artist-patient was so depressed that electroshock therapy was employed. Any thoughts?
A quick check of the Acronym Server (
http://www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym) gives us:
EST (Werner) Erhard Seminars Training
EST Eastern Standard Time
EST Electronic Spark Timing
EST English for Science and Technology
EST Estonia Don't any of them look good to me.
Hi, Alex. Estrogen Therapy?
Well I can't think of any cancers that have been treated with estrogen, which in fact is specifically blocked in the treatment of some breast cancers (those that express estrogen receptors on the cancer cells).
The more I think about it, the more I think it does refer to electroshock therapy. In that particular panel, a person is shown in a black bathrobe, which suggests depression to me as well.
cancers that have been treated with estrogen
Prostate?
RE: Prostate
Good point. In the past estrogens have been used in conjunction with other hormonal therapies for prostate cancer, although that is not the current trend. We do typically treat with medicines that block testosterone receptors and reduce the amount of testosterone produced.
In the case of the painting, the disease is depicted as in the thorax rather than the pelvis. I wish I could find it online so I could link to it.
How about Expressed Sequence Tags?
Not quite sure what they are, but this
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ncicgap/article might help.
EDIT: There are several medical articles that talk about there use in tracing caner cells in the humangerome.
Try Googling <Cancer EST> and ignoring the bits in French.
I'm not a doctor, Alex, but...somehow I don't think it's electoshock therapy. But you would know better than I would, whether that is really such a common thing for cancer patients to go through that it would be listed with such generic things. I did find, "EST (expressed sequence tag): A unique stretch of DNA within a coding region of a gene that is useful for identifying full-length genes and serves as a landmark for mapping. An EST is a sequence tagged site (STS) derived from cDNA.", but that's way too detailed, isn't it, to fit in with the rest on the list?
Edit: I see I was beaten to posting what my quote was about, while I was making this one.
RE: expressed sequence tag
That's interesting. I'd never heard of it before. It sounds like the kind of thing that would be done at NIH or the NCI, but it isn't anything I've ever come across in everyday practice.
Well let me explain why I asked. I was invited to be the graduation speaker for the class of students in training to become radiation therapists. (Rad. therapists are the people who actually operate the machines that deliver radiation to treat cancer.) The painting in question is one I want to use as a centerpiece of my presentation, as it allows me to linger on each panel for a moment to discuss various issues regarding cancer treatment and how the radiation therapists fit into the big picture. (For example, for the panel "The Diagnosis" I thought i"d read Raymond Carver's short poem, "What The Doctor Said.") The "EST" panel has me stumped. Perhaps I can simply admit defeat on that panel, glean a little comic relief from it and move on to the next panel.
>The First Oncologist, EST, The Second Oncologist
this sequence does imply something.. unusual in the sequence; a second opinion after some emotional trauma? perhaps electro-shock therapy isn't so far-fetched.
Well you should see the painting -- the "first oncologist" is represented as a skeleton's hand a la a personified Death.
Maybe it's Electron Something Treatment. Electron Something Therapy. (It would be nice if the middle letter was B, Electron Beam works better.) Or External Something Therapy. (External Beam, once again, it would be easier with a B.)
Explore secondary treatment? Explore specific treatments?
Here is a site with patients' stories, Alex (and I imagine there are others). It sounds to me like the painter was trying to depict stages that are common to all cancer patients. Even if you don't have time to search stories for common experiences (one of which might fit the letters EST), you may find them interesting.
http://cancerguide.org/stories.html
Hi Alex,
In the context you depicted, I am quite certain that EST stands for estimated (or expected) survival time.
Werner, thanks. I hadn't thought of that one. Anyway, wish me luck everybody. I've never delivered a commencement address (nor did I ever expect to at my age). It's exciting.
Good luck. And maybe someone at the school knows what EST means. Don't wanna ruin your credibility.
Yeah, we had this old dude spoke at our graduation din't even know what EST was.
Congratulations and good luck. If you get nervous just remember the old trick of picturing them in their underwear. Personally I always thought that I would get more nervous speaking to a room of undressed people.
Wasn't there a psychotherapy called EST popular back in the early 80s?
Bingley