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

by Lerner, Barron H.

• ISBN13: 9780195161069
• ISBN10: 0195161068
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• 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 andcompassion, 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 RoseKushner, 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 to combat a paternalistic legacy that silenced patients; and the struggles of statisticians and researchers to generate definitive data inthe face of the great risks and uncertainties raised by the disease. And for this new paperback edition, Lerner has included a postscript in which he discusses the most recent breast cancer controversy: do mammograms truly lower mortality rates or do they lead to unnecessary mastectomies? 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 ethical and legal challenges raised by informed consent, and the limited ability of scientific knowledge toprovide quick solutions for serious illnesses. The Breast Cancer Wars tells a story that is 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. He is the author of Contagion and Confinement: Controlling Tuberculosis Along the Skid Road as well as articles in professional journals and publications such as The Washington Post. He lives with his wife and two children in Westchester County, New York.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Abbreviations	2	(1)
1 Introduction	3	(12)
2 Establishing a Tradition	15	(26)
William Halsted and the Radical Mastectomy
3 Inventing a Curable Disease	41	(28)
Breast Cancer Control after World War II
4 The Scalpel Triumphant	69	(23)
Radical Surgery in the 1950s
5 A Heretical Interlude	92	(23)
Biology as Fate
6 Reality Check	115	(26)
Breast Cancer Treatment and Randomized Controlled Trials
7 "I Alone Am in Charge of My Body"	141	(29)
Breast Cancer Patients in Revolt
8 No Shrinking Violet	170	(26)
Rose Kushner and the Maturation of Breast Cancer Activism
9 Seek and Ye Shall Find	196	(27)
Mammography Praised and Scorned
10 "The World Has Passed Us By"	223	(18)
Science, Activism, and the Fall of the Radical Mastectomy
11 The Past as Prologue	241	(35)
What Can the History of Breast Cancer Teach Us?
12 Risky Business	276	(15)
Breast Cancer and Genetics
13 Epilogue	291	(6)
14 Postscript	297
Glossary of Breast Cancer Operations	303	(2)
Sources	305	(4)
Notes	309	(70)
Index	379