30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Up-to-date and personal, February 3, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The American Cancer Society: Prostate Cancer, revised edition (Paperback)
I bought the first edition of this book when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was struggling to decide between surgery and radiation therapies. I learned two important facts: 1. the decision as to which course of treatment to choose is not just medical; it's personal; and 2. so much is being done in this field that what any book says can be outdated quickly.
This book succeeded on both counts. Its quotations from people who had chosen alternative forms of therapy as to why they made the choices they did helped tremendously in making my own decision. And the currency of the information was better than any other book I consulted. This new, revised edition should take advantage of the research that has been published in the past year. The book deals with much more than treatment options as well, and should prove helpful to patients at various stages of therapy.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Biased book, December 2, 2004
This review is from: The American Cancer Society: Prostate Cancer, revised edition (Paperback)
The American Cancer Society's own cookbook actually includes recipes for CHAR-BROILED BEEF! They never warn us about the cancer-causing dangers of charbroiling meat.
I would never trust anything the American Cancer Society says. They are very biased in favor of expensive pharmaceuticals with cancer-causing side-effects. They are the wealthiest "charity" in America, with cash reserves of $1 Billion.
The Role of the ACS in the War Against Cancer
The verdict is unassailable. The American Cancer Society bears a major responsibility for losing the winnable war against cancer.
The launching of the 1971 War Against Cancer provided the ACS with a well-exploited opportunity to pursue it own myopic and self-interested agenda. Its strategies remain based on two lies -- that there has been dramatic progress in the treatment and cure of cancer, and that any increase in the incidence and mortality of cancer is due to aging of the population and smoking while denying any significant role for involuntary exposures to industrial carcinogens in air, water, consumer products and the workplace.
Most of the funds raised by ACS go to pay overhead, salaries, fringe benefits, and travel expenses of its national executives in Atlanta. They also go to pay Chief Executive Officers, who earn six-figure salaries in several states, and the hundreds of other employees who work out of some 3,000 regional offices nationwide. The typical ACS affiliate, which helps raise the money for the national office, spends more than 52 percent of its budget on salaries, pensions, fringe benefits, and overhead for its own employees.
Salaries and overhead for most ACS affiliates also exceeded 50 percent, although most direct community services are handled by unpaid volunteers. DiLorenzo summed up his findings by emphasizing the hoarding of funds by the ACS.
"Most contributors believe their donations are being used to fight cancer, not to accumulate financial reserves. More progress in the war against cancer would be made if they would divest some of their real estate holdings and use the proceeds -- as well as a portion of their cash reserves -- to provide more cancer services."
Aside from high salaries and overhead, most of what is left of the ACS budget goes to basic research and research into profitable, patented cancer drugs.
The current budget of the ACS is $380 million and its cash reserves approach one billion dollars. Yet its aggressive fund-raising campaign continues to plead poverty, and lament the lack of available money for cancer research, while ignoring efforts to prevent cancer by phasing out avoidable exposures to environmental and occupational carcinogens.
Meanwhile, the ACS is silent about its intricate relationships with the wealthy cancer drug industry and chemical industries.
Read more....... http://www.corporations.org/cancer/boycottacs.html
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
