Advice on breast cancer

Press, 28 August 1982, Page 16

Advice on breast cancer

Breast Cancer: A Guide to its Early Detection and Treatment. By Carolyn Faulder. Virago, 1982 (revised edition). 166 pp. $9.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by J. R. Doig) i For some months I have asked patients i attending my Gynaecology Clinic whether i they perform breast self examination and < have been disturbed to find that, despite j extensive publicity, less than 30 per cent j make this a routine monthly exercise. Carolyn Faulder, in this new edition of her ( excellent book, emphasises the fact that i breast cancer is now the leading cause of I death in women aged 35 to 54 years and | affects one woman in 17. One woman in 30 1 dies from this cause. [ The book discusses the emotional and i physical consequences which attend the initial experience of finding a breast (

lump, the diagnosis of cancer (only one in 10 lumps are malignant), and the effects which follow treatment. Chapters on breast self examination, screening measures and a thorough discussion of treatment measures, including surgery, radiotherapy and the more recent advances in hormonal and cytotoxic (cell-killing) chemotherapy, are particularly worthy of recommendation to patients and clinicians alike. Miss Faulder’s book is not a saga of despair; rather one of encouragement and information. She rightly states that the biggest problems for clinicians and patients arise from ignorance and fear. Her book should assist patients and health professionals to approach this serious illness with confidence and courage. (Dr Doig is a tutor specialist at Christchurch Women’s Hospital.)