Fredrick Stephens - Cancer Explained: The Essential Guide to Diagnosis and Management

At long last we have a comprehensive, readable and understandable book on cancer, a book that does not scare but puts the entire topic in its true perspective. Cancer Explained helps remove much of the mystique, horror and hopelessness that many people associate with cancer. This book is filled with page after page of good cheer, as we see countless ways in which everyone can take steps usually simple ones to help prevent the disease from striking. That is marvellous news in itself. Although most of these steps have been known for years, they are brought together in Cancer Explained in an easily followed way. Then we are gently walked through the various forms of cancer, the signs and symptoms which should alert us and the steps the doctor will take in diagnosis and treatment. Finally there are simple explanations of the litany of cancer-related words.

Cancer Explained is filled with common sense, empathy and hard-hitting facts, all wrapped up in words that anyone can follow and understand. Western medicine still offers the most important options in dealing with cancer. But the book shows an appreciation of the enormous range of alternative methods of prevention and treatment. Many accepted forms of Western medicine are based on naturally occurring products. Fred Stephens acknowledges the proliferating data on fibre, isoflavinoids and phytoestrogens, and their value in prevention a reason why cancer is so rare in countries where legumes and other high-fibre, low-fat foods are part of the everyday diet. There are lessons to be learned from all parts of the globe.

Fred Stephens has a long and distinguished association with cancer and education, at the University of Sydney, Sydney Hospital and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. For many years he educated, advised and treated vast numbers of students and patients. All have benefited from his experience and, just as importantly, from his understanding and empathy for his fellow human beings.

I am intrigued by this fine book and recommend it to medical people as well as everyone out there. Reading it will help you better understand all aspects of the second-largest killer in our community. And it will help you save lives, most importantly your own, or that of family or friends.

Read this book, and tell your friends to read it also. I am certainly recommending it to my media audience.

Dr James Wright, AM, MB, BS, FRACGP

Cancer control is a fast-moving field, and it is pleasing that this useful cancer reference book for the general public has been updated. The changes reflect our better understanding of this common and misunderstood disease, and the advances in diagnosis and treatment that have occurred over the last decade.

Books cannot take the place of personal discussions with a healthcare team, nor can they cover all aspects of cancer control in depth. However, this book will help the general public, particularly the cancer patient and his or her family, to understand the issues and the words that they will come across in the course of the cancer journey. Cancer is increasingly a preventable and curable disease, and a cancer diagnosis should no longer be the cause of fear that it once was. Knowledge helps dispel fear, and this book will assist people in asking the questions to which they need answers.

Professor Ian Frazer, MB, ChB (Ed), MD (Melbourne),
FRCPA, MRCP, Australian of the Year, 2006

Surgical oncologist Professor Fred Stephens and medical oncologist Professor Richard Fox have provided one of the best and most comprehensive guides to all aspects of cancer for anyone with an interest and involvement in this now very common medical problem. Cancer Explained covers all the general information needed to understand how cancer develops, why it is sometimes able to spread within the body and become fatal, and how it is managed and most often cured. For those with a specific cancer problem the second half of the book provides detailed information on the diagnosis and management of most common cancers.

Written in an easy-to-read style, the book provides an essential overview of current information on cancer and a valuable reference for those who develop cancer. The authors stress the curability of most cancers with modern multidisciplinary management and provide valuable advice on prevention, early diagnosis and current therapies.

The second edition expands and brings up to date what was, in the first edition, a comprehensive source of information on cancer for the general community.

Emeritus Professor William McCarthy, AM, MB,
BS (Sydney), M Ed (Illinois)

My intention in writing this book has been to answer the questions that patients and friends ask me about cancer. It is intended to help not only cancer patients, or friends and family of cancer patients, but also nurses and paramedical personnel. The book should also help medical practitioners to answer patients questions and perhaps give them a broader understanding of the various aspects of cancer.