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

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.

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.

Publishers Weekly

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

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction: Understanding the Choices   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     1
The Big Picture     9
Making Decisions   Laura A. Siminoff, Ph.D.     11
What Is Breast Cancer?   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     26
A Statistic of One   April Fritz, RHIT, CTR     43
"Why Me?" A Discussion of Risk   Mark Robson, M.D.     59
Understanding the Treatments: The Doctors' Perspectives     73
Assembling the Treatment Team and Charting a Course   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     75
Facing Surgery   Peter J. Deckers, M.D.   Theodore N. Tsangaris, M.D.     86
Profiles of Two Breast Surgeons   Jerome Sandler, M.D.   Robert Barnett, M.D.     103
Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer   Abram Recht, M.D.     110
Profiles of Two Radiation Oncologists   Luther Ampey, M.D.   Susan Stinson, M.D.     125
Beyond Local Therapy: Hormonal Therapy and Chemotherapy   Antonio C. Wolff, M.D.   Nancy E. Davidson, M.D.     132
Profiles of Three Medical Oncologists   Claudine Isaacs, M.D.   Sandra Swain, M.D.   Chitra Rajagopal, M.D.     153
Breast Reconstruction after Mastectomy: What Are My Options?   Roger J. Friedman, M.D.     164
Profiles of Two Reconstructive Surgeons   Gregory O. Dick, M.D.   Maurice Nahabedian, M.D.     179
Treatment Options for Metastatic Breast Cancer   Daniel F. Hayes, M.D.     186
Notes on the Experience of Having Breast Cancer     201
The Shock of Finding Out   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     203
Necessary Decisions: Surgery, Radiation Therapy, and Breast Reconstruction   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     207
Considering Adjuvant Therapy   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     212
Reflections on the Experience   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     217
Survivors Tell Their Stories     223
Stories from Women at High Risk     225
Stories from Women with Non-Invasive Breast Cancer     238
Stories from Women with Invasive Breast Cancer     263
Stories from Women with Advanced Breast Cancer     328
When Cancer Specialists Get Cancer     347
A Professional and a Patient   Carole Seddon, LCSW-C, OSW-C     349
Lessons Learned   April Fritz, RHIT, CTR     359
"You're Going to Live"   Lillie Shockney, R.N., B.S., M.A.S.     377
Conclusion: The Agony and the Opportunity of Choice   Kenneth D. Miller, M.D.     389
About the Contributors     393
Index     397