From Library Journal
Although the incidence of breast cancer continues to rise, the death rate remains constant. More women are surviving. Coping with this frightening illness, making informed healthcare decisions, and caring for family and friends during this stressful time can be overwhelming. La Tour, a breast cancer survivor, has written a comprehensive and intimate manual covering all aspects of the disease: diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment, breast reconstruction, emotional issues, and death and dying. She has interviewed 120 cancer survivors and family members and 16 healthcare providers specializing in cancer care, and quotations from the interviews add personal touches to the text. This book complements Yashar Hirshaut and Peter Pressman's Breast Cancer: The Complete Guide ( LJ 8/92). The latter provides more detail about medical and surgical treatment while La Tour's book emphasizes practical survival skills. An excellent addition to consumer health collections. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.--Ed.
- Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Breast cancer survivor La Tour draws upon her own experience and that of some 120 others as well as upon their families and health professionals to amass extensive information on the medical and emotional issues involved in surviving the disease. Through her, the many women who may be diagnosed with it--some 182,000 during 1993 alone, it has been estimated--hear about choosing the correct doctor, getting second opinions, the variety of available treatment and reconstruction options, and the varied outcomes of those choices in the words of survivors. Special chapters on the emotional and physical issues of life after breast cancer and when "living with cancer becomes dying from cancer" provide additional insight and sources of support. Comprehensive and well-written, her guide is a useful addition to breast cancer literature.
Karen Graves
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
