Understanding Cancer: A Patient's Guide to Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment - Hardcover

Coleman MD, Dr. C. Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801860199 ISBN 13: 9780801860195

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998

Synopsis

The greatest need of anyone with cancer is to understand the disease -- its diagnosis, treatment options, and the often devastating experience of having cancer. In Understanding Cancer, Dr. Norman Coleman explains how to gather information about different treatments and how to interpret that information to make decisions. He helps the person with cancer prepare for visits to doctors and the hospital, and to make those visits as productive as possible. He distills the often complex medical terms and the concepts underlying the statistics and percentages used to characterize medical conditions. With clear, in-depth discussions of pretreatment staging of disease, the biology of cancer, how successful treatment is defined, and how best to manage one's time, Understanding Cancer helps people with cancer become active participants in the decision-making process.

Today, people with cancer face more alternatives and decisions than ever before -- a situation that can be daunting, Dr. Coleman notes, but ultimately empowering. While most doctors try to provide complete information to their patients, it's impossible for any health care professional to provide all the detailed information a patient and family really need to make informed decisions about treatment. Although this book does not provide recommendations about a specific medical problem and its treatment, it does explain how the benefits of treatment are assessed, how to interpret the results of those assessments, and how to be a full partner in determining the course of medical treatment. Topics include:

* Diagnosis and Treatment: What You Can Expect

* Cancer: Where Does It Come From?

* Diagnostic Tests and Staging Studies: Gathering Information

* Making Decisions about Treatment: How Success Is Measured

* Weighing the Long-Term Risks and Benefits of Treatment

* An Overview of Conventional Treatments

* Participating in Research Trials: What They're All About

* Patient Stories: Four Clinical Case Studies

* Patient's Checklist

"Many similar 'how to' guides have preceded this one. But few have offered the distilled clarity that Norm Coleman offers cancer patients here. In these pages they will find relief in his realistic and understandable explanation about the goals of cancer treatment. He guides the reader through the quagmire of cancer treatment decision-making by making the patient a part of the process. This may seem simple to someone who has not had to endure this exhausting exercise. It is far from simple, and one of Dr. Coleman's outstanding talents is his ability to simplify complex information... This book is written by a physician who has devoted his life to curing the ills of ignorance about cancer. That is his gift to us, his readers." -- from the Foreword, by Ellen L. Stovall, Executive Director, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and 26-year cancer survivor

About this title

About the Author

C. Norman Coleman, M.D. is a Alvin T. and Viola D. Fuller American Cancer Society Professor and Chairman of the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School.

Reviews

Offering solid, straightforward informationAnot always in a warm, fuzzy wrappingADr. Coleman, chairman of the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at Harvard Medical School, assists the person who has received a diagnosis of cancer in sorting through all the confusing and possibly conflicting information coming from doctors, friends and the media. First arming the patient with a checklist for recording significant data, Coleman goes step-by-step through the process of diagnosis, explaining the clinical and pathological tests that are needed to identify the cancer's type and stage. Next, he considers the various treatment options, providing a thorough discussion on such aspects as response of the tumor to treatment, duration of that response and the patient's chances of survival and future quality of life. His goal is to help patients understand how risks and benefits are measured in order to work effectively with their doctors in choosing the most appropriate treatment. In the closing chapter, Coleman highlights the case studies of four cancer patients, illustrating how and why individual treatment decisions were reached. Cancer patients who want to be fully informed participants in their own health care will find this a valuable handbook.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As professor of radiation oncology and chair of the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at Harvard Medical School, Coleman realizes how important it is for cancer patients to understand the terms and concepts used by healthcare professionals. Here he explains such concepts as cancer etiology, diagnostic tests, treatment options, and clinical trials?concepts that are impossible for health professionals to explain fully during hospital visits and difficult for patients to grasp in times of crisis. Using patient checklists and case studies, Coleman describes the steps involved in the initial diagnosis, staging (the growth pattern of a tumor), and the risks and benefits of different treatments. This information will enable cancer patients to play an active role in determining the right course of medical treatment. A unique book that discusses the clinical aspects of cancer in a nonclinical fashion.?Lily Liu, Arkansas Children's Hosp. Lib., Little Rock
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801860199
• ISBN 13: 9780801860195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192