Dr Susan Love’s Breast Book: Not the Best Book on Preventing Breast Cancer After All
For a book that is supposed to be the best book to use on breast cancer, Dr Susan Love's Breast Book falls short in many important areas. I am not saying that one should not read it. It may help to know what to expect ahead of time, though .
The first problem is an obvious one. There is way too much time spent on basic breast anatomy and development, and not enough on the information that is immediately helpful to someone who has been newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Women who are looking for answers do not want to have to sift through half of the book before they find them. Particularly when one's life hangs in the balance.
Secondly, Dr Susan Love's Breast Book was last published in 2005. Surely the survival and mortality statistics the author quotes are outdated by now. In the cases of chemotherapy, antibodies, and hormonal therapies, advances are often realized much more quickly than a five-year span. Consequently, the statistics on ten-year survival rates are especially suspect.
Worse yet, the author takes a measly paragraph to guide women on reading and interpreting the statistics! How can they possibly move forward in their fight when they are ill-prepared and fearful?
In addition, descriptions of rare complications of surgery and recurrence are given too much space. Instead of focusing on the facts on which to base decisions, Dr Love agonizes over the number of lives lost as well as medical inadequacy. Again, to a woman looking for information right now: not necessary.
In the rare case that she has helpful information about the dangers of radiation, chemo, and/or surgery, Dr. Love insists on recommending it. And that is in the face of the evidence that chemotherapy is only 2-9% effective when given to non-metastatic women and that many of the side effects of the big three treatment options are permanent and life threatening in themselves!
Thanks, but I'll pass on that advice. At least without a second or third opinion. After all, she is still a doctor, and has a very cold, calculating way of assessing the treatment plans.
It is not that you can't get some good information from the book. Dr Susan Love's Breast Book contains a respectable amount of material on breast cancer. But most women need real advice on what to do next, what will happen next, and how to detect (and prevent) recurrences.
Looking for practical information about preventing breast cancer in yourself and the women you love? Visit the preventing breast cancer page on Holistic-Medicine-MD. Better yet, check out the book Breast Cancer: Reduce Your Risk With Foods You Love by Dr. Robert Pendergrast.