Medicine imitates literature: Cancer by any other name would not be as terrifying

This is from a New York Times article reporting Dr. Donald Gleason (a pathologist who invented the Gleason score for prostate cancer) wants to rename prostate cancer to make it sound less terrifying.  Carcinoma (a type of cancer) in situ (早期子宮頸癌) has been renamed as cervical intraepithelial (上皮細胞) neoplasia, taking the dreaded “carcinoma” away.

The title (Cancer by any other name would not be as terrifying) of this article is obviously taken from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Juliet said “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet;” after she learned that Romeo belongs to Montague—a rival family that she grew up to hate.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name which is no part of thee

Take all myself. 

             Romeo and Juliet  Act 2 Scene  2 

This is another example of how medical writing strives to have a literary title/headline.