Ashing Kimlin Tam - Detecting and Living with Breast Cancer For Dummies

Detecting & Living with Breast Cancer For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948467

ISBN 978-1-119-27224-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-27225-0 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-119-27226-7 (ePDF)

1. Table of Contents

I am excited to write this foreword for Detecting & Living with Breast Cancer For Dummies by Drs. Marshalee George and Kimlin Tam Ashing. As a survivor, I believe that the comprehensive and easy-to-read information this book provides will help readers navigate each stage of their healthcare and personal journey from diagnosis to survivorship. In clear, concise language this book explains testing, procedures, and treatments that individuals experience. The authors understand the questions that concern patients at every stage and they deliver the answers in topical chapters.

For my fellow survivors, I encourage you to start by looking over the table of contents, which offers you an overview of the breadth and depth of coverage. This book tackles topics that we are sometimes hesitant to ask and even sometimes dont even know to ask. For example, chapters detailing surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and radiation demystify the experiences through patient-centered teaching. This book attends to social, family, sexuality, and psychological matters and is clearly intended for the whole person. It thoughtfully addresses medical communication and improving physical, social, and emotional well-being to live our best life possible, as the authors put it. This empathetic, knowledge-based approach lives in each chapter and continues throughout the book.

Detecting & Living with Breast Cancer For Dummies is a powerful and compassionate resource.

Nilaya Baccus-Hairston, JD, breast cancer survivor

Welcome to Detecting & Living with Breast Cancer For Dummies! We wrote this book in association with the American Breast Cancer Foundation to help men and women live full and productive lives after a diagnosis of breast cancer.

The impact of a breast cancer diagnosis and its treatments can be challenging and sometimes even devastating for some breast cancer survivors. Some survivors report that they endure pain and physical and emotional problems, and that their family, sexuality, intimacy, and social and work lives suffer. But we are here to tell you that in doing our breast cancer survivorship clinics and community studies, weve met many hopeful, purposeful and resilient men and women.

Your authors Drs. George and Ashing, along with other colleagues, have examined quality care and coping among breast cancer survivors and caregivers throughout the breast cancer journey. A wealth of our clinical and professional experience has come from their work at their academic and NCI-designated Cancer Centers (Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Maryland, and City of Hope, Comprehensive Cancer Center, California). Our work is grounded in a multidisciplinary, whole-person approach integrating mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of breast cancer survivors healing and recovery. We provide educational, quality care, research, and advocacy information and resources that strive to empower breast cancer patients and their loved ones. Given our interest and expertise in health disparities, this book attends to the unmet needs of ethnic minority, low-income, and underserved cancer survivors. As scientists-advocates, our efforts have contributed to breast cancer patient-centered research and best practices in their local communities, nationally as well as nationally and internationally.

The American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF) at www.abcf.org is a national 501(c)(3) charity providing educational resources, vital funding to aid in early detection, treatment, and survival of breast cancer for underserved and uninsured individuals, regardless of age or gender. ABCF addresses many issues and provides resources for many subjects that are addressed in this book.

As you strive for wholeness, remember that breast cancer is not your fault. With advances in early detection and treatments including personalized medicine (genetics, genomics, combination treatments, and immunotherapies), breast cancer is increasingly treatable and even curable. In this book, we offer you our cumulated wisdom on treatment decision making, self-care, hope, mindfulness, and healthy adaptive behaviors, so you can live your healthiest life possible.