The Breast Cancer Survival Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide for the Woman with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer - Softcover

Link, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805064001 ISBN 13: 9780805064001

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 2000

Synopsis

The updated edition of an essential resource needed by the 250,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women from thirty-five to fifty-four years of age, and few things are as terrifying and confusing as a diagnosis of this disease. The second edition of The Breast Cancer Survival Manual is a concise, information-packed guide that is newly revised to contain all of the latest findings to help the woman facing treatment feel informed and empowered. John Link, M.D., the director of the Memorial Breast Center in Long Beach-ranked by Self magazine as one of America's top ten breast cancer centers-includes the most current medical advice on:

o Tamoxifen, Herceptin, and other chemotherapy options
o The growing importance of Her-2 oncogene testing
o Clinical research trials under way that could broaden treatment options
o The role of preventative drugs and prophylactic mastectomy for those with high genetic risk
o Sentinel lymph node sampling, a method of local control soon to become standard

Of course, all of the basic information included in the first edition- the nature and biology of breast cancer, choosing a treatment team, managing side effects, and optimizing medication-are here as well, making this the best book of its kind on the market.

About this title

About the Author

John Link, M.D., is a practicing internist and oncologist, founder of the multidisciplinary Memorial Breast Center in Long Beach, California, and director of the Pacific Coast Breast Center in Torrence, California. He lives in southern California.

Reviews

Reassuring and realistic, this guide offers basic, immediate information for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Physician Link conveys a sense of urgency in the second edition of his guide: in a most frightening and confusing time, women must gather their strength and seize the moment to understand the physiology of their particular situation and its ramifications for treatmentthen aggressively seek out the resources that will optimize their chances of cure. Questions of why and how this has happened usually have no answer, counsels Link. But he can offer the reassurance that most women today are cured of breast cancer. They undergo treatment, become survivors, and go on. Link first explains that, while breast cancer is urgent, there is time (usually several weeks) to confirm a diagnosis, investigate treatment possibilities and resources, and formulate a plan. Treatment, he points out, is no longer sequential (first surgery, then radiation, then chemo); rather, it will more likely involve multiple specialists working in concert. Furthermore, Link emphasizes the importance of making sure that the treatment team acknowledges the tremendous variability of breast cancer as it acts within each individual woman, and designing the therapy accordingly. Help with physical, emotional, psychological, and social issues abounds hereina well-rounded, authoritative resource. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805064001
• ISBN 13: 9780805064001
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224