Outrunning Cancer

There were thousands of joggers thudding along the Charles in 1977. Some were hoping to lose a few pounds; others were training for teams or marathons. But Herbert M. Howe was running against cancer.

Howe, who received his Ph.D. in government from Harvard in 1978, suffered the customary side effects from chemotherapy he underwent to control a rare form of fibrosarcoma. His hair fell out; he experienced long periods of pain; he dropped thirty pounds. Finally, he says, he reached his limit of "physical frustration." That day he ran eight miles through the city of Cambridge.

Thus began the program of physical activity which Howe credits with helping him overcome his mental depression, and with it, his disease. He is quick to deny, that his personal experience can be reapplied to other cancer patients. But in his own case, Howe feels that sports offered him some tangible goals towards which to strive, and that his setting of those goals helped him realize he had control over his own life. "Once I decided on a goal, the pain became incidental," Howe says, drawing an analogy between sports and his life. His pursuit of achievement, Howe believes, helped him overcome his temporary pain.

Herbert Howe embodies his own belief that human limitations are elastic, and that people can usually accomplish more than they think. In January, 1977, when he decided he could no longer go on with chemotherapy, "there was the implication from my doctors that I might die" without treatment, he says. But his program of running, boxing, squash playing and swimming built up his physical strength so that he was able to undergo more chemotherapy and eventually drive his disease into remission.

Loring Conant, Jr., assistant Physician at University Health Services, treated Howe. Conant believes that Howe's "incredible determination and positive thinking" were indeed important factors in his recovery. "The most distressing aspect of any illness is the feeling of a loss of control that the patient experiences," Conant says, adding that having "concrete objects to deal with," such as Howe's athletic goals, can have an important effect on the patient's illness.

Conant too emphasizes the impracticability of using Howe's experiences as a yardstick for all cancer patients. The nature of the disease, he notes, makes it impossible to diagnose the same treatment for all cancer patients.

Both Howe and Conant agree there is a need for tenderness and communication in dealing with cancer patients. Both doctors and family members must keep "a sense of the total person" in mind, says Conant. It is easy, but often harmful, to think of a patient only in terms of his illness, Conant believes, saying, "It's important to remember that you are dealing with a person, not just a platelet count." Howe stresses the need for all those involved with a terminally ill patient to show humor and perspective. He believes that his emotional state, as much as his physical state, helped affect his recovery.

Howe believes sports not only strengthened him, but also gave him the ability to cope with the psychologically depressing aspects of cancer. He adds that a lowered stress level, "whether through humor, physical activity, or anything else," may increase immunological levels. He also believes fighters stand a better chance. "We tend to surrender ourselves to the doctors--and to the concept of their infallibility," he says. He believes too much treatment by others can ultimately be detrimental.

Today Howe lives in Washington, D.C. where he is an analyst for Southern African affairs for the Library of Congress. Since overcoming cancer and receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard, Howe has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer as a foreign correspondent based in Zimbabwe, served in the Peace Corps, and worked for a Washington organization for the aged. He has also taken up scuba diving, hang gliding and parachuting. Cancer taught him how to "wrestle with mortality," he says, and that wrestling has left him determined to live as full a life as possible.