Breast Beating: A Personal Odyssey in the Quest for an Understanding of Breast Cancer, the Meaning of Life and Other Easy Questions

Michael Baum is recognised as a world authority on breast cancer and surgery. In 2007 he was awarded the St. Gallen prize, the most prestigious award worldwide for breast cancer research. This book is the story of his life, his work and his mission. Part autobiography, part anti-establishment polemic, part scientific empirical dialogue, Breast Beating recounts the story of Michael's extraordinarily gifted family, his attachment and adherence to the Jewish faith, and on a wider scale his profound love for human kind. He propounds his appreciation for the arts, music and the finer things of life. Michael is a man of science and medicine. Having qualified as a surgeon and reached the top of his profession, his career path also led him into battle against breast cancer wherein with colleagues he developed a number of clinical trials that changed the way breast cancer patients were treated. His research, operations and knowledge have contributed to the improvement in care for cancer sufferers worldwide, and have saved many lives. In his career he has not been afraid to challenge the accepted norm, to ask difficult questions, to sometimes change his own thinking based on the evidence of others, and thus to invite controversy. Michael's steadfastly scientific way of thinking with his knowledge firmly grounded in fact and not hypothesis has recently led him into confrontation with Prince Charles and other proponents of homeopathy and alternative medicine. In this book he explains just how and why he holds such strong opinions and beliefs both from a professional and personal point of view.

Michael Baum past President of the British Oncology Association and the European Breast cancer conference, has been awarded the William McGuire prize at San Antonio Texas, the Charles Gross prize in France, the St Gallen prize in Switzerland and the gold medal of the International College of Surgeons for his research into the treatment of breast cancer. He was one of the first to challenge the doctrine of radical mastectomy, lead the first trial that demonstrated the potential of tamoxifen to prolong life amongst breast cancer victims and was also the first to describe psychometric instruments to measure quality of life in cancer sufferers. He has also pioneered a revolutionary technique of intra-operative radiotherapy to replace 6 weeks of outpatient treatment with 30 minutes in the OR. Baum has a large and loud extended family, and when not finding the cure for cancer, is in his studio painting whilst musing on the meaning of life. His official title is Professor Emeritus of Surgery and visiting Prof. of Medical Humanities, University College London, but his friends call him Mike and his 9 grandchildren call him Papa Mike. Fortunately his wife Judy is always at hand to keep his feet firmly grounded.

Michael Baum remains a refreshing voice of reason and compassion. His Knowledge of breast cancer is second to none, his willingness to abandon old nostrums in the face of new research is commendable, and his determination,-almost enthusiasm,---to reject his own ideas when new facts point to new ones is sign of real scientific greatness. Unlike in politics where U-turns are disparaged, in medicine following the evidence is the essence of good patient care. This is a man who believed, as did all mainstream oncolgists, that cancer spreads through the lymphatic system. Yet he has been in the vanguard of those who now suspect it spreads through blood. The difference is by no means arcane; it calls for a fundamental reassessment of cancer treatment. Professor Baum is brave. He has long warned about, "the flight from rational thinking," posed by the recycled fashion for alternative medicine lobby. But he is also prepared to take on his own colleagues. He was one of the first to champion cancer screening and then, as inconvenient data emerged, he became one of its most vocal critics, much to the annoyance of many fellow doctors and of the powerful screening lobby groups he himself had helped to create. This book, as he puts it himself, is really about, "how false assumptions about the nature of breast cancer gave rise to cruel and futile interventions that added to the sum of human suffering." But, above all, it is a book about human nobility and hope.

An odyssey, as this book is described, can be defined as a long and eventful journey and the author certainly succeeds in recounting his personal journey in a fascinating account which is part memoir, part documentary and part sermon.

Michael Baum is a globally renowned breast surgeon and his name is instantly recognisable in the field. This book describes his distinguished career from newly qualified surgeon through to Professor Emeritus of Surgery and visiting Professor of Medical Humanities, with many interesting steps in between. Uniquely it also offers a personal insight into the author's family, the influence of a Jewish upbringing and his reactions to both his mother and sister being diagnosed with breast cancer.

One of the strengths of this compelling book is the self-depreciating and honest description of issues that would have been all too easy to omit. Personal experiences of panic attacks, acute depression, sceptic (even hostile) colleagues, a tenacious patient complaint and even prolapsed piles are described with both candour and humour throughout. Similarly, controversies debated in the popular press such as the relative merits of breast screening and complementary therapies are tackled head on.

This book will certainly appeal to healthcare professionals working within breast cancer as they will benefit from recognising the clinical trials, medical treatments and leading names cited throughout. The chapters devoted to philosophy and the biological behaviour of cancer contain terminology that might prove difficult for some but nevertheless, they are insightful and thought provoking.

It is unusual to read a book in which medical facts are presented along side personal opinion and a life story in this way but the result is a captivating narrative that conveys to the reader how progress in treating breast cancer has evolved over the years. Michael Baum's professional achievements and his tenacity are astounding, all the more so when described in his funny, compassionate and generous style.

This book will leave you both impressed and challenged. The front cover suggests it is a quest for an understanding of breast cancer and the meaning of life and perhaps incredibly you will be a little clearer on both by the time you reach the end. --Dr Emma Pennery, Breast Cancer Care's summer newsletter.