Choices in Breast Cancer Treatment: Medical Specialists and Cancer Survivors Tell You What You Need to Know

by Kenneth D. Miller MD (Editor)

Overview

A diagnosis of breast cancer can be overwhelming. The disease is frightening and the medical landscape confusing. In the wake of fear and confusion comes the need to make decisions about treatment. This book provides women with medically reliable and up-to-date information to help them with these decisions.

Within these pages is a team of private consultants—including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, plastic surgeons, and women who have faced breast cancer—each of whom offers sound advice and valuable insight. In addition to describing surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and breast reconstruction, the medical experts clarify choices and offer support, while breast cancer survivors tell their own stories of pain, perseverance, and triumph.

Choices in Breast Cancer Treatment is a rare blend of medical expertise and compelling personal accounts that empowers those with breast cancer to meet the disease with confidence, knowledge, and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801886850
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2008
Series:	A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.07(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kenneth D. Miller, M.D., a practicing medical oncologist, is an assistant professor of medicine and oncology at the Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine. He serves as the director of the Connecticut Challenge Survivorship Clinic and of the Supportive Care Program at Yale Cancer Center.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding the Choices
Part 1. The Big Picture
Chapter 1. Making Decisions
Chapter 2. What is Breast Cancer?
Chapter 3. A Statistic of One
Chapter 4. "Why Me?" A Discussion of Risk
Part 2. Understanding the Treatments: The Doctor's Perspectives
Chapter 5. Assembling the Treatment Team and Charting a Course
Chapter 6. Facing Surgery
Chapter 7. Profiles of Two Breast Surgeons
Chapter 8. Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
Chapter 9. Profiles of Two Radiation Oncologists
Chapter 10. Beyond Local Therapy: Hormonal Therapy and Chemotherapy
Chapter 11. Profiles of Three Medical Oncologists
Chapter 12. Breast Reconstruction after Mastectomy: What Are My Options?
Chapter 13. Profiles of two Reconstructive Surgeons
Chapter 14. Treatment Options for Metastatic Breast Cancer
Part 3. Notes on the Experience of Having Breast Cancer
Chapter 15. The Shock of Finding Out
Chapter 16. Neccessary Decisions: Surgery, Radiation Therapy, and Breast Reconstruction
Chapter 17. Considering Adjuvant Therapy
Chapter 18. Reflections on the Experiemce
Part 4. Survivors Tell Their Stories
Chapter 19. Stories from Women at High Risk
Chapter 20. Stories from Women with Non-Invasive Breast Cancer
Chapter 21. Stories from Women wityh Invasive Breast Cancer
Chapter 22. Stories from Women with Advanced Breast Cancer
Part 5. When Cancer Specialists Get Cancer
Chapter 23. A Professional and a Patient
Chapter 24. Lessons Learned
Chapter 25. "You're Going to Live"
Conclusion: The Agony and the Opportunity of Choice
About the Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Dr. Miller has a wealth of experience as a medical oncologist and a keen understanding as a compassionate physician of the difficult choices that face women diagnosed with breast cancer. Miller wisely combines the voices and expertise of breast cancer survivors and the doctors who care for them. This book paves the way for women who want a clear understanding of their options in order to astutely make what may be the most important decisions of their lives.
—Julie K. Silver, M.D., Harvard Medical School, author of After Cancer Treatment: Heal Faster, Better, Stronger

This excellent book provides just the right mixture of accurate medical information and insight and emotions from breast cancer survivors who share their own experiences. This combination will help women with breast cancer make informed decisions about their medical treatment and will also help them cope with the fears, frustrations, and other emotions of their journey.
—Donald R. Lannin, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Executive Director, Yale–New Haven Breast Center

Donald R. Lannin

This excellent book provides just the right mixture of accurate medical information and insight and emotions from breast cancer survivors who share their own experiences. This combination will help women with breast cancer make informed decisions about their medical treatment and will also help them cope with the fears, frustrations, and other emotions of their journey.

— Donald R. Lannin, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Executive Director, Yale–New Haven Breast Center

Julie K. Silver

Dr. Miller has a wealth of experience as a medical oncologist and a keen understanding as a compassionate physician of the difficult choices that face women diagnosed with breast cancer. Miller wisely combines the voices and expertise of breast cancer survivors and the doctors who care for them. This book paves the way for women who want a clear understanding of their options in order to astutely make what may be the most important decisions of their lives.

— Julie K. Silver, M.D., Harvard Medical School, author of After Cancer Treatment: Heal Faster, Better, Stronger

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Heidi H Richardson, MD (University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics)
Description: This book provides newly diagnosed breast cancer patients with medical facts, descriptions of treatment options, and tips from breast cancer survivors.
Purpose: It assists patients in understanding their treatment options in order to better prepare them to make important decisions regarding their care. The author does an excellent job of describing breast cancer in layman's terms and incorporating accounts from breast cancer survivors.
Audience: The editor is a medical oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center and is the husband of a cancer survivor. The other contributors include medical oncologists, breast surgeons, radiation oncologists, and reconstructive surgeons, as well as breast cancer survivors. Although intended for breast cancer patients, it is also an excellent resource for family members of breast cancer patients as well as women at high risk for the development of breast cancer.
Features: Organized into five sections, this book begins with an overview of breast cancer. This is followed by a discussion of treatment options, the experience of having breast cancer, and narratives from breast cancer survivors, concluding with narratives from healthcare professionals who also had breast cancer. These personal accounts provide important information about the emotional aspects associated with a diagnosis of breast cancer and may help women better anticipate the difficulties of their journey.
Assessment: This is a useful book for patients and their families as it provides a good description of treatment options as well as tips from breast cancer survivors.

Doody's Review Service

An indispensable resource for any breast cancer patient or a patient's friends and family.
—Olivia Boler, Foreword

Miller's approach provides the reader with the sense that she's had a private and unhurried consultation with each specialist: medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons . . . This collection will help to fortify women making tough choices, offering invaluable information along with hope.
—Publishers Weekly

There is a great deal of very detailed information in this book.
—Sheila Thomas, Consumer Connection

More than a standard reference guide . . . this book arms readers with knowledge, confidence, and hope as they begin their journey from sickness to health.
—American Journal for Nurse Practitioners

This step-by-step guide offers newly diagnosed patients a path through the complex and often overwhelming array of information and decisions . . . helpful charts and illustrations accompany clearly presented medical information, all conveyed in an inclusive, supportive tone.
—Jody Rosen Knower, MAMM

This is a useful book for patients and their families as it provides a good description of treatment options as well as tips from breast cancer survivors.
—Heidi H Richardson, MD, Doody's Review Service

Appropriate for all women, their family members and friends, physicians, and other care providers.
—Choice

Highly recommended to every woman . . . and for community library health shelves in general.
—Midwest Book Review

This fine book achieves the goal of providing clear and relevant medical information and guidance from specialists in order to help patients make treatment decisions. In addition, through the narratives of both patients and physicians, it will likely provide inspiration and hope to women who are confronting the challenge of breast cancer.
—Christina I. Herold, M.D., Informa Healthcare

Finally—one-stop reading for any woman facing breast cancer.
—Health for Women

Well written and very understandable for the lay audience.
—Rachel Benz, RN, BSN, and Karen Meneses, PhD, RN, FAAN, Oncology Nursing Forum

A resource that combines medical expertise with emotional insight in a valuable and educational way for women at any stage of the breast cancer journey.
—Women & Cancer magazine

This book provides a good overview about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. . . A good reference book providing both factual and emotional insights into the breat cancer journey.
—Jo Beven, CancerForum

From the Publisher

Well written and very understandable for the lay audience.

Oncology Nursing Forum - Rachel Benz

This fine book achieves the goal of providing clear and relevant medical information and guidance from specialists in order to help patients make treatment decisions. In addition, through the narratives of both patients and physicians, it will likely provide inspiration and hope to women who are confronting the challenge of breast cancer.

Informa Healthcare - Christina I. Herold

This book provides a good overview about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. . . A good reference book providing both factual and emotional insights into the breat cancer journey.

CancerForum - Jo Beven

Highly recommended to every woman . . . and for community library health shelves in general.

Midwest Book Review

This step-by-step guide offers newly diagnosed patients a path through the complex and often overwhelming array of information and decisions . . . helpful charts and illustrations accompany clearly presented medical information, all conveyed in an inclusive, supportive tone.

MAMM - Jody Rosen Knower

There is a great deal of very detailed information in this book.

Consumer Connection - Sheila Thomas

A resource that combines medical expertise with emotional insight in a valuable and educational way for women at any stage of the breast cancer journey.

Women & Cancer magazine

"Appropriate for all women, their family members and friends, physicians, and other care providers."

Choice

This book provides a good overview about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment... A good reference book providing both factual and emotional insights into the breat cancer journey.

— Jo Beven

CancerForum

"Finally—one-stop reading for any woman facing breast cancer."

Health for Women

"More than a standard reference guide... this book arms readers with knowledge, confidence, and hope as they begin their journey from sickness to health."

American Journal for Nurse Practitioners

"An indispensable resource for any breast cancer patient or a patient's friends and family."

Foreword - Olivia Boler

Miller, an oncologist and director of the Yale Cancer Center Survivorship Program, presents a unique and indispensable book for women facing breast cancer, which features individual chapters written by medical experts and breast cancer survivors. Asserting that "knowledgeable people make different choices, for different reasons," Miller's overarching message is that each woman is unique, as is her experience with this life-threatening disease. Because there are so many potential scenarios-based upon the tumor's size, the stage of cancer, etc.-treatment options vary, and women must decide which route to take in a timely fashion while simultaneously confronting their fears. Miller's approach provides the reader with the sense that she's had a private and unhurried consultation with each specialist: medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons. In addition the book includes personal accounts of survivors who have faced an array of experiences, from the woman whose mammogram reveals a lump just weeks before her wedding to the breast cancer statistician who is diagnosed with the very disease she is studying. This collection will help to fortify women making tough choices, offering invaluable information along with hope. (Jan.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

In 2007, there were over 170,000 new breast cancer cases, so the need for up-to-date resources continues. Drawing on the expertise of private consultants, this five-part book edited by Miller (medicine & oncology, Yale Cancer Ctr.) succeeds at being an authoritative resource for a wide audience: women who are at high risk for developing breast cancer and even those with metastatic cancer. The first two parts introduce breast cancer and its treatments; the last three parts deal with the personal experience of breast cancer. Various chapters profile doctors in specialties related to breast cancer such as radiation oncologists and plastic surgeons-there is even a chapter about doctors who are breast cancer survivors. This book effectively illustrates the disease's complexity. Readers will see how women made choices based on what was best for themselves, not on statistics. The illustrations are helpful in demonstrating how breast cancer forms and the surgical procedures. Although medical terms are defined in different sections, a glossary would have been helpful. Highly recommended for consumer health and public libraries.
—Rebecca Raszewski

Library Journal