Prostate Cancer : A Patient's Guide to Treatment

Rating:
Summary: A must read for any man
Review: A must read for any man over 40 regardless of whether or not he has prostate cancer. The clarity of information is matched only by the outstanding illustrations.
Clearly one of the most informative and understandable writings of our times. Compassionate in tone and sensative in presentation.


Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive, patient friendly
Review: My urologist gave me this book he first told me I had cancer. It was good to leave his office with a resource in my hands because my wife and I obviously had a lot of questions. The book answered our questions and explained prostate cancer and its treatment options thoroughly but in an easy to understand way.
When I went back for my second visit after my diagnosis, my doctor and I discussed treatment options. He also answered some questions the book had brought to mind. Four months ago I had a nerve sparing radical prostatectomy, and I've been doing great since. I'd definitely recommend this book to other men with prostate cancer.

Rating:
Summary: Superb on cryosurgery for PC, plus coverage of all therapies
Review: This is an excellent, easy-to-read book that covers all therapies, but it's great contribution is the superb coverage of cryotherapy for prostate cancer, one of the specialties for which co-author Gary Onik, MD is well-known. Though this book will be a fine resource for orienting many patients, I see it as a "must read" book for someone seriously considering cryosurgery. The book covers other therapies in an overview fashion, providing major details; that's an advantage for the new patient as it limits confusion and facilitates rough comparison of therapies, but some patients will probably want more information to narrow the therapy choice and will need other sources to fill-in important details. That's not a criticism, just a comment on the role of this book in educating patients. The book also contains fresh insights, even for those of us patients with a lot of hard-knocks knowledge of the disease. The co-authors have done an excellent of stressing empowerment of patients. Their presentation of therapies from the viewpoint of the patient helps achieve this objective.

The coverage of cryo ranges from advantages, disadvantages and limitations, details of the procedure, selection of a skilled cryo surgeon, promising results for this relatively new technology, side effects, ways of limiting recurrence, and excellent potential as a salvage technique. The book recommends the patient confirm with his doctor that certain techniques will be used, such as slow thawing and prevention of injury to the rectum by injection of saline solution in an intervening space. It notes that a special advantage over other therapies is that all types of prostate cancer cells respond, even aggressive cells (high Gleason scores). It also notes that follow-up data is still limited to about five to seven years, a disadvantage, though data at the outer boundary looks good.