David Chan - Breast Cancer: Real Questions, Real Answers

This book clearly organizes the most pressing questions that patients have when diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Almost every question Ive ever been asked is answered in a clear and thoughtful manner in this excellent resource. I recommend it as important support for patients navigating this difficult journey.

CLIFFORD HUDIS, MD,
Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and
Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College
of Cornell University

The most thorough patient-oriented [book] that I have ever seen. This book will be valuable to the literate, educated and medically unsophisticated population... There is a good deal of medical and scientific terminology that is conveyed to the patient...

GEORGE P. CANELLOS, MD,
William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine at
Harvard Medical School, Editor Emeritus of the
Journal of Clinical Oncology, and President Emeritus
of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

This book provides an accurate and extremely clear approach to complex issues every woman with a breast cancer diagnosis should know. Patients, family members, and loved ones will find Dr. Chans book empowering, and a resource to go back to frequently on their journey to recovery.

FRANCISCO J. ESTEVA, MD, PHD,
Director of the Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory
and Associate Professor of the Departments of Breast Medical
Oncology and Molecular & Cellular Oncology at
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Chans book is a thoughtful, comprehensive resource for the patient who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. He has been able to simplify, very succinctly, answers to the most complex questions raised by one facing this disease and its treatment. I would recommend this book, without hesitation, to breast cancer patients, who often feel lost in an abyss of complex medical information.

LINNEA I. CHAP, MD,
Co-Director of the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center
and Associate Professor of Medicine
at UCLA/Geffen School of Medicine

This wonderful book does exactly what it says: provides the real answers to the many important questions asked by our breast cancer patients, in a style that is accessible to all. The answers are concise, accurate, up-to-date, and eminently readable. They reflect the true nature of the author: a highly caring physician who has dedicated his life to battling this disease... which all of us aim to overcome in our lifetime.

BRIAN LEYLAND-JONES, MD,
Director of the McGill Comprehensive Cancer Center
and Minda de Gunzburg Chair of Oncology
at McGill University in Montreal

Dr. David Chan is a well-respected, well-trained, and inspirational medical oncologist. In his twenty years of clinical practice, breast cancer patients have asked him important questions about their disease and treatment. Dr. Chan has synthesized these questions and their answers in an easily read format. Most patients, in the whirlwind and tumult surrounding their breast cancer diagnosis, will find this book a useful tool for reflection and study. Their spouses and other loved ones are also likely to find Davids book helpful.

DOUGLAS W. BLAYNEY, MD,
Professor of Medicine
and Medical Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center
at the University of Michigan Medical School

A Google search of the Internet using the key term breast cancer yields 21,700,000 hits. Using Medline to search only the peer-reviewed, medical research publications on the topic of breast cancer, one finds 138,188 papers in hundreds of different scientific journals. Imagine now a newly diagnosed patient (or their family members or helpful friends) with no medical background or knowledge of tumor biology, clinical research, epidemiology, pathology, or pharmacology, attempting to sift through this daunting amount of data in order to find answers to simple but critical clinical questions regarding their care. This situation creates severe anxiety and frustration for patients with the disease; moreover, some of the information available on the Internet is not evidence-based, or worse yet, just plain wrong.

Consequently, Breast Cancer: Real Questions, Real Answers meets a major unmet need for patients with breast cancer as it contains the most frequently asked questions about the disease, and presents concise (yet precise) practical, understandable, informative answers to these very common questions. This work is a must read for patients as an entry point into the bewildering world of clinical decision making in management of breast cancer. The work is wonderfully illustrated providing an understandable framework for lessons on complex topics such as anatomy, pathology, genetics, diagnostic imaging, and even molecular biology. I will definitely plan to keep a copy of this book in the waiting room for patients in my clinic at UCLA.

MARK D. PEGRAM, MD,
Associate Professor of Medicine at
UCLA/Geffen School of Medicine
and Director of the Womens Cancer Program at
the UCLA/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Chan is skillfully teaching the art as well as the science of breast cancer treatment in this excellent book. I am eagerly anticipating the French edition to benefit our patients and their loved ones.

SYLVIE GIACCHETTI, MD,
Centre for Diseases of the Breast, Service d Oncologie
at the Hospital Saint Louis in Paris

Dr. David Chan is an oncologist in Redondo Beach, California, and is an instructor at the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center. He has treated over 2,500 breast cancer patients, and has written and lectured extensively on breast cancer over a twenty-year career. Dr. Chan received his medical degree at UCLA, and his oncology training at Stanford University. He is President of Cancer Care Associates, one of the leading oncology groups in Southern California. Dr. Chan also serves as Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Community/UCLA Oncology Network and is a Principal Investigator for the UCLA/Translational Oncology Institute. Dr. Chan and Cancer Care Associates are active in UCLA breast cancer clinical trials, striving to advance the treatment and cure of breast cancer.

Real
Questions,
Real
Answers

David Chan, MD

Illustrated by Eric F. Glassy, MD
Preface by John Glaspy, MD, MPH
Introduction by Frank Stockdale, MD, PhD

MARLOWE & COMPANY
NEW YORK

BREAST CANCER:
Real Questions, Real Answers

Copyright by 2006 David Chan
Preface copyright by John Glaspy
Introduction copyright by Frank E. Stockdale
Illustrations copyright by Eric Glassy

Published by
Marlowe & Company
An Imprint of Avalon Publishing Group Incorporated
245 West 17th Street 11th floor
New York, NY 10011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whol or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chan, David, 1953
Breast cancer : real questions, real answers / David Chan ; illustrated by Eric F. Glassy ; introduction by John Glaspy ; preface by Frank Stockdale.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56924-314-X (pbk.)
1. BreastCancer. I. Title.