The Breast Cancer Wars Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America

by Lerner, Barron H.

• ISBN13: 9780195142617
• ISBN10: 0195142616
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this riveting narrative, Barron H. Lerner offers a superb medical and cultural history of our century-long battle with breast cancer. Revisiting the past, Lerner argues, can illuminate and clarify the dilemmas confronted by women with--and at risk for--the disease. Writing with insight and compassion, Lerner tells a compelling story of influential surgeons, anxious patients and committed activists. There are colorful portraits of the leading figures, ranging from the acerbic Dr. William Halsted, who pioneered the disfiguring radical mastectomy at the turn of the century to George Crile, Jr., the Cleveland surgeon who shocked the medical establishment by "going public" with his doubts about mastectomy, to Rose Kushner, a brash journalist who relentlessly educated American women about breast cancer. Lerner offers a fascinating account of the breast cancer wars: the insistent efforts of physicians to vanquish the "enemy"; the fights waged by feminists and maverick doctors to combat a paternalistic legacy that discouraged decision-making by patients; and the struggles of statisticians and researchers to generate definitive data in the face of the great risks and uncertainties raised by the disease. As easy as it is to demonize male physicians, the persistence of the radical mastectomy and other invasive treatments has had as much to do with the complicated scientific understandings of breast cancer as with sexism. In Lerner's hands, the fight against breast cancer opens a window on American medical practice over the last century: the pursuit of dramatic cures with sophisticated technologies, the emergence of patients' rights, the ethical and legal challenges raised by informed consent, and the limited ability of scientific knowledge to provide quick solutions for serious illnesses. A searching and profound work on an emotionally charged issue, The Breast Cancer Wars tells a story that remains of vital importance to modern breast cancer patients, their families and the clinicians who strive to treat and prevent this dreaded disease.

Author Biography

Barron H. Lerner, M.D. is Angelica Berrie Gold Foundation Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, where he teaches internal medicine, medical history and bioethics.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations	p. 2
Introduction	p. 3
Establishing a Tradition: William Halsted and the Radical Mastectomy	p. 15
Inventing a Curable Disease: Breast Cancer Control after World War II	p. 41
The Scalpel Triumphant: Radical Surgery in the 1950s	p. 69
A Heretical Interlude: Biology as Fate	p. 92
Reality Check: Breast Cancer Treatment and Randomized Controlled Trials	p. 115
"I Alone Am in Charge of My Body": Breast Cancer Patients in Revolt	p. 141
No Shrinking Violet: Rose Kushner and the Maturation of Breast Cancer Activism	p. 170
Seek and Ye Shall Find: Mammography Praised and Scorned	p. 196
"The World Has Passed Us By": Science, Activism, and the Fall of the Radical Mastectomy	p. 223
The Past as Prologue: What Can the History of Breast Cancer Teach Us?	p. 241
Risky Business: Breast Cancer and Genetics	p. 276
Epilogue	p. 291
Glossary of Breast Cancer Operations	p. 297
Sources	p. 298
Notes	p. 301
Index	p. 371
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.