Breast Cancer

Starred review from September 1, 2008
Called "the best of a recent flurry of books on breast cancer" in our starred review ("LJ" 8/92), this title, by a medical oncologist and a surgical oncologist, respectively, gets its fifth revision to update treatments, statistics, and resources in order to help patients manage their disease better. With a foreword by Jane Brody, this is still highly recommended.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 31, 1992
One of every nine women in the U.S. today will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime, up from an estimated one in 15 in 1975246 . Should that disease afflict you or someone you know, this manual by Hirshaut, an oncologist, and Pressman, a surgeon, will serve as a step-by-step companion, from diagnosis and treatment to life after the disease. The authors effectively combine accurate, up-to-date medical facts with brief narratives from women who have overcome the disease. Their guide is thorough and intelligent, written to give women a clear sense of the potentially bewildering choices that will face them: needle aspiration or open biopsy70-71 , lumpectomy or mastectomy117 , chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Not all the news is bad: more than 75% of malignant lumps are found by women themselves. Hirshaut and Pressman explain the technique involved in this procedure and what signs to look for47 . They also sketch the social and political contexts of the illness. For example, last year, more than 44,000 women died of breast cancer--and yet the NIH withdrew funding for a study that would have explored the link between dietary fat and breast cancer, due to budget restrictions. Somehow there was, however, enough money to give the Pentagon $29 billion.