Customer Reviews

Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer, Second Edition

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you've already gotten a PSA "score" of four-plus, the utility of this book will be to help you evaluate your treatment options pragmatically. There are no miracles being promised - no secret knowledge - beyond the miracle of modern scientific medicine. The tone of Dr. Walsh's writing, however, is fraternally supportive and optimistic without denying the gravity of your condition. My strenuous advice would be to read the book, at least to skim it, before your all-important visit to your urologist. You WILL have questions to ask, so they might as well be good ones.

If you are a lucky guy who doesn't NEED such a book just yet, you're the very person who should read it. Evolution has made a serious botch of the prostate gland (speaking metaphorically, of course) and most men are living long enough these days to experience the woes of UNdesigned body parts. It's not entertaining reading. But it should be sufficiently uncomfortable to make you take the PSA testing schedule earnestly, and to consider such changes in your diet and life style as MIGHT help forestall the need to evaluate treatments. Dr. Walsh is not a preacher, but he does present evidence that the meat-centered modern diet is a factor in the humongous rate of prostate cancer in Europe and North America.

If you are the spouse or partner of someone who suddenly needs this book, you WILL need to understand the 'situation' and this book will help you be helpful. You can get all the same data and all the same suggestions on-line, but Dr. Walsh's book winnows most of the chaff from the useful grain, plus it will save you and your Man from being the target of spam designed to make money from your dilemma or to persuade you of a point of view.

Lots of doctors and lots of 'survivors' recommend this book, which has been updated this year. I haven't found anything more appealing, and I've looked.

This is not the book that I ever wanted to expected to be buying, but it's been an incredibly valuable resource as I make my way through Cancerworld, prostate division. Dr. Walsh is a legendary surgeon and a pioneer in nerve-sparing surgery who also proves to be a lucid and informative writer. He pulls no punches, but he also gives the plausible and practical reasons for being hopeful in the face of a prostate-cancer diagnosis. The book is indexed very well, which I found very helpful in trying to zero in on certain topics rather than reading sequentially, and each chapter starts out with a concise and effective synopsis.

A friend dropped off the first edition of this book the evening I got my diagnosis of Prostate Cancer. I found the book to be informative and balanced, with very good medical information to guide my decision making steps. After consulting with two surgeons (where their individual recomendations were in total alignment with Dr Walsh's comments) I chose to have a robotic Radical Prostetectomy. This book prepared me for the surgery and has been an invaluable guide for my recovery. I bought several copies of the revised edition and have already given two of them to other people recently diagnosed with Prostate cancer.

This is an updated edition of what has been the best laymen's book on prostate cancer, something that one of three men will experience in their lifetimes. But prostate cancer is not a death sentence or anywhere close if it's diagnosed early, evenin aggressive cases.Survival ratesfor those caught in the early stages are nearly 100 percent i.e. no recurrence in five years. Walsh is from JOhns Hpkins, considered to be leader in prostate cancer and urlogy generally.

Don't wait until you get prostate cancer to find out something about it, because if you don't ever have it, someone you know will. It will hep if someone knows something about it who isn't in a panic. In the meantime, make sure you follow reasonable advice on being tested.

There are alternative treatments bt there's a number of variables.You'll find most of it here. And ou'll get some idea of what you should look for from your own doctor - including whether you need a second opinion or another physician.

The oter good news is that there are prostate cancerns where treatment can be delayed indefinitely. It's just that most of us aren't qualified to make that judgement. Buy it. Read it.

I received "the call" from my urologist four days ago. He asked me to stop by the office and pick up this book. I was there first thing the next morning and despite its 500+ pages, had read it (and several chapters many times) by that afternoon. If you want to be well-informed about the options facing a person diagnosed with prostate cancer, I cannot imagine a better resource.

When I first saw the size of this book, I thought "how much is there to say about this?" I now know. Read this book to be prepared with the questions you will want to ask your doctor.

And if you are the partner of a prostate cancer patient, read this book to understand the very serious decisions that need to be made. Your understanding of the issues and support of the ultimate choice about treatment will be invaluable.

I can only say - thank you Ms. Worthington and Dr. Walsh. You have provided me with the kind of information I feel I need to begin this challenge.

By the time you are purchasing this book you probably are on your way to having a biopsy or, more likely, have received the report and its not good news....This book is the most comprehensive of all that I've looked at since my own biopsy, though one warning is to keep in mind that surgical techniques have still improved even further since the book went to press a couple years ago....The stress on incontinence after the radical prostatectomy may be overwrought -- or at least I became overwrought with anxiety until I actually spoke with several men who have had the procedure (robotic surgery) in recent months. Compared with those who shared their stories with me who had surgery four to seven years ago, it seems like night and day. So maybe talk to a few folks before reading this book, or else you are likely to despair more than you need to. Very well written, filled with all the detailed information you'll want to know.

Excellent overview of the entire spectrum of this disease. Very up to date info as of mid 2007 on most topics. As an MD afflicted with this problem I found Walsh's book more useful than medical review searches, texts, etc. Well organized and understandable to a reasonably educated lay person.

Dr. Patrick Walsh and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins are widely recognized as the medical profession's leading experts on prostate cancer. The Second Edition of this classic guide is up-to-date, authoritative, and comprehensive. It contains everything you want to know about prostate cancer, from prevention through prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. All this information is remarkably well organized and accessible. The book contains twelve chapters with titles like, "Do I Have Prostate Cancer?" and "What Are My Options?". Each chapter begins with a short table of contents and a one or two-page summary (kind of like those "Cliffs Notes" you used in high school). The book also includes a full golssary and a detailed index.

If you have had a needle biopsy and have been diagnosed with prostate cancer the Partin Tables and Han Tables in Chapter Six will permit you to determine, within specified statistical limits, the extent of your cancer and the likelyhood of a cure. For the majority of men this information will be good news. The Partin and Han Tables alone are worth more than the modest price of the book.

Despite the technical nature of the subject matter, the book is easy to read. Dr. Walsh's co-author, Janet Farrar Worthington, is a gifted writer. The analogies she uses to put medical terminology into lay terms are absolutely delightful. There is nothing funny about prostate cancer--my Dad and my grandfather both died of the disease. However, I found myself chuckling more than once as I read this wonderful book. Thanks Dr. Walsh; thanks Janet.

Having just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, I began searching for any information I could find. In early stage cancer, you have to make a decision on surgery or radiation therapy. The doctors can't make that decision for you. You need accurate and timely information to make an intelligent decision. You also need to understand the jargon associated with this cancer and its treatments such as BTH, IBRT, IGRT, Gleason Scale, PSA levels as well as complex and simple PSA. They all relate to survivability depending on the course you elect. If you, or someone you love, has been diagnosed, this book is an absolute MUST READ. With it I made my decision!!

Well-written, easy to read, well organized. Everything you need or want to know about prostate cancer and your choices for dealing with it.