They Thought They Had Only Months to Live. Then Things Changed.

Dr. Lamas, a contributing Opinion writer, is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

There is a classic image in cancer treatment of a patient triumphantly ringing a bell to commemorate the end of chemotherapy or radiation. When he completed 15 rounds of radiation to his metastatic kidney cancer, Shed Boren was offered the chance to ring the bell at his treatment center. Though he did so, the ritual, he said, felt “performative,” hardly the celebration that was intended.

When Mr. Boren was diagnosed this past summer at age 60, he said his goodbyes to his elderly parents and selected the music for his funeral. His cancer has, remarkably, responded to........

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