Overview & Editorial

The Association for Research on the After-effects of Radiotherapy (ARSER) is a patient association whose essential missions are:

    1. improving the chances of survival of those affected,
    2. the reduction of suffering due to the after-effects of radiotherapy.

To this end, ARSER aims to develop research into the after-effects of radiotherapy, and therefore to achieve this, to raise funds.

Its aim is not to establish basis for claim: ARSER is not intended to group patients considering they are “victims” of radiotherapy. Rather ARSER wants to inform patients and doctors about the progress of the research on the after-effects of radiotherapy and to finance it.

Dr. Sylvie Delanian is one of the very first physicians in the world to have cared about the after-effects of radiotherapy as a radiotherapist and to have provided answers, particularly for treatments that have been in effect for more than 10 years.

Along with Jean-Louis Lefaix, a researcher at the CEA, and then with Dr. Pierre-François Pradat, neurologist, she led research to better understand the mechanisms and develop new treatments to reduce these after-effects.

Many patients cured of their cancer long ago, called “long-term survivors”, and no longer undergoing medical treatment, are often unaware that the ill-systematised symptoms they suffer are after-effects of radiotherapy.

Editorial

DUO EN MON JARDIN

“Les chants désespérés sont les chants les plus beaux
Et j’en sais d’immortels qui sont de purs sanglots.”

Alfred de Musset

Le merle, en ce printemps, lance un chant si joyeux
Que penchée au balcon, je le cherche des yeux :
Au faîte du grand cèdre, il salue le matin
En offrant sa chanson aux accents cristallins.
Et moi, je tends l’oreille à ce précieux cadeau
Qui, dit-on, des humains allège le fardeau…

Le merle musicien, éveillant le silence,
Honore le soleil de ses notes qui dansent.
Enchantant mon jardin de sa douce présence,
Il caresse un instant la fleur de l’espérance
Et dans l’aube naissante, sifflant à perdre haleine,
Il semble ne chanter que pour bercer ma peine.

* *

Puis un merle nouveau se pose sur un chêne
Et entame un duo, comme on le fait sur scène.
Dans le jardin en fleurs aux teintes d’aquarelle
Ils clament alentour combien la vie est belle.

Unissant leurs Becs d’Or, les oiseaux se déchaînent
Et moi, les yeux mi-clos, je sens fondre ma peine…