Customer Reviews

Fighting Cancer with Knowledge and Hope: A Guide for Patients, Families, and Health Care Providers (Yale University Press Health & Wellness)

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Dr. Richard Frank has done an excellent job of imparting the knowledge every cancer patient should have. This book is beautifully written with case histories illustrating examples of successful treatment. It explains what cancer is, why and how it starts, the effects of the environment, DNA, and nutrition on its genesis. The various treatments -chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, and radiation are explained. How and why each treatment works or doesn't work are discussed as well as problems a patient may have during treatment and later as a cancer survivor. It is a "must read" for all cancer patients, their loved ones, and care givers. Dr. Frank, as Head of Cancer Research at Norwalk Hospital, brings a wealth of information and understanding to this work.

Dr. Frank is so in tune with the emotional needs of his patients, and what it really means to deal with a cancer
diagnosis... everyone should be so lucky to have a doctor who really cares, but if they aren't, at least
now they can have this book. I highly recommend...

This book explained how cancer cells work in terms that anyone can understand. It also explained many of the treatments available. The book gives very helpful examples of different patients experieces with cancer. Dr. Frank also helps patients with stage II cancer understand why chemo after sugery, might be the best way to go. This is a great book for anyone who has cancer and anyone considering adjuvent cancer treatment.

This book is amazing. I wanted to find out everything I possibly could about cancer as a result of a relative who was diagnosed with cancer. This book goes into great detail explaining all aspects of cancer in a straight forward and very easy to understand manner. It has alleviated many of my fears and given all of us hope about a positive outcome. Furthermore, this book provides moral help for the family in coping with this disease. The examples Dr. Frank provides throughout the book makes the material easier to read and provides real life experiences that are very much relevant. I will definitely suggest this book to any of my friends or acquaintances that have to confront cancer either as a patient or as a close family relative. Kudos to Dr. Frank for this wonderful piece of work. PS: Having recently shared some of the book's information with a friend has greatly diminished some of his mistaken concerns about this disease.

excellent, clear and easy for the regular guy to follow.........
very detailed for all readers

Having my own battle with carcinoma, I was in search of information. This book has provided it in spades! With no hidden agendas, fads or attempts at selling. Just good, solid, scientific information, clearly presented. Great book.

I am currently a breast cancer patient and found Dr. Frank's book to be exactly what I needed to read. His matter-of-fact descriptions of what cancer is, how it is treated, what the various cancer drugs do and how they affect the human body were easily understandable by a layperson such as myself. Reading this book put my treatment and my disease into great perspective - I only wish I had had the book at the beginning of my treatment. I found it to be very enlightening and it enabled me to comprehend what was happening to my body and my mind as I moved through my cancer journey. I urge everyone who has begun their own "walk through the fire" and who are living with the day-to-day effects of cancer to go out and get themselves a copy of this book for themselves and also for their families.

I am a 10-year survivor with multiple myeloma. I just wish when I was first diagnosed my doctor handed me a book like this. I was told I had perhaps six months to live and to "get my affairs in order." I was scared silly. Over the ensuing months, going to various specialists, I began to arm myself with knowledge about my specific kind of cancer, my stage of disease, treatment options, side effects and so on. Dr. Frank makes the point that today there are three general areas of treatment--surgery, radiology and chemo, but that within these areas are all kinds of byways and judgments. Here finally is a primer that explains in layman terms the very challenging options open to patients (and caregivers). After reading this book you will still have plenty of questions for your oncologist but at least you will know where to start. Andrew Jaffe, New Canaan, CT

Dr. Frank's book is written with clear strategy and great depth of information. The cancer patient will find it easy to comprehend; and the health care provider will find it to be a great resource to add to the office bookshelf.
As an oncology nurse practitioner I often reference Dr. Frank's book when I am teaching or counseling a cancer patient. The book is divided into two parts that each include four sections: Exposing Cancer and Attacking Cancer. The sections include specific cancers, staging/curability, the "why" of cancer development, metastasis and treatment, and survival.
Hope is woven through the knowledge which helps relieve the fear and anxiety that come with the diagnosis of cancer.
I highly recommend this book to the cancer patient, the family, and the many health care providers caring for the oncology patient.

The first thing that struck me about the book is the warmth that comes through from the author. Here is a quote to illustrate this from Richard Frank's Fighting Cancer with Knowledge and Hope. "There is no need to ask me, `what would you do if I were your brother, wife or mother'? Please understand this is always a given." I know many people affected by cancer. The book is an eye opener and answers any question ever asked about cancer. I feel like I know Dr. Frank and his patients from the way he writes. I now understand cancer. I think this is an incredible book and should be in Oprah's book club. I loved this book and I am recommending it to all my friends. Thank you. From Ruth Hayon, Rockaway Beach, New York.