Understanding Cancer
A Patient's Guide to Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
The greatest need of anyone with cancer is to understand the disease—its diagnosis, treatment options, and the often devastating experience of having cancer. In Understanding Cancer, Dr. C. Norman Coleman explains how to gather information about treatments and how to interpret that information to make decisions. He helps the person with cancer prepare for visits to doctors and the hospital and to make those visits as productive as possible. He distills the often complex medical terms and concepts underlying the statistics and percentages used to characterize medical conditions. With clear, in-depth discussions of pretreatment staging of disease, the biology of cancer, how successful treatment is defined, and how best to manage one's time, Understanding Cancer helps people with cancer and their families become active participants in the decision-making process.
In the second edition of this highly respected guide, Dr. Coleman describes new treatments that target specific types of cancer as well as treatments that are designed for a particular individual. He discusses the era of molecular medicine, including biomarkers, novel imaging, molecular signatures and profiling, and molecular-targeted therapy. Many of these therapies are currently only available through a clinical trial, so Dr. Coleman includes a detailed discussion of what is involved in participating in research trials.
Compassionate, accessible, and informative, Understanding Cancer will increase the reader's knowledge of medical concepts and terms so the person with cancer, the family, and the health care team can work together efficiently—and effectively.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Offering solid, straightforward information--not always in a warm, fuzzy wrapping--Dr. Coleman, chairman of the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at Harvard Medical School, assists the person who has received a diagnosis of cancer in sorting through all the confusing and possibly conflicting information coming from doctors, friends and the media. First arming the patient with a checklist for recording significant data, Coleman goes step-by-step through the process of diagnosis, explaining the clinical and pathological tests that are needed to identify the cancer's type and stage. Next, he considers the various treatment options, providing a thorough discussion on such aspects as response of the tumor to treatment, duration of that response and the patient's chances of survival and future quality of life. His goal is to help patients understand how risks and benefits are measured in order to work effectively with their doctors in choosing the most appropriate treatment. In the closing chapter, Coleman highlights the case studies of four cancer patients, illustrating how and why individual treatment decisions were reached. Cancer patients who want to be fully informed participants in their own health care will find this a valuable handbook.
