Rating: 
Summary: valuable for consumers
Review: This book offers very helpful information on breast cancer. It affected my outlook on treatment, particularly chemotherapy.I am not a doctor or a breast cancer patient, but I think I know something about decision-making under risk. If you are the type of person who likes to make their own medical decisions, based on information and advice from doctors, this is a good book for you. Also, if you like to think about quantitative, statistical factors in making a decision, this is a good book for you. Let me illustrate the point about chemotherapy with a metaphor. Imagine two people in a car--a driver and a 14-year-old. The driver notices a bee inside the car, on the windshield. The 14-year old takes a pistol out of the glove compartment and offers to shoot the bee. The driver says, "Go ahead." What's wrong with this picture? My guess is that the driver has an irrational fear of bees, based on poor knowledge. The 14-year old has an overblown sense of the value of guns. Oncologists with chemotherapy are like the 14-year-old who wants to shoot the bee. And many women with breast cancer are like the driver who is so scared of the bee that the potential long-term side effects of the gun don't affect the decision. There definitely are cases in which I would favor shooting the bee (applying chemo). But I would recommend making your own decision, based on the data in this book, rather than passively accepting the "standard" (which keeps changing to lower the threshold of risk required to supposedly warrant chemo). There is much more information in this book than the data on chemotherapy. But that information alone makes it highly valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Straight Talk About Breasts
Review: This book, like the first two editions, pulls no punches. It is chock full of the latest info on breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and research. I recommend it for anyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and wants the total picture at their disposal. It is not sugar-coated, but it is truthful. The chapters are organized in such a manner that it is easy to find exactly what you are searching for. The updated sections on new techniques, such as ductal lavage, are inspiring. This book remains the total package for breast cancer and breast health, in general. Knowledge can be scary, but ignorance is dangerous. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the two best books available
Review: This is an excellent book, and well worth reading. But it's probably the second book to read, behind "The Breast Cancer Survival Manual : A Step-By-Step Guide for the Woman With Newly Diagnosed Cancer" by John Link. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer on January 5th of this year. Fortunately, she found it herself, through self-checking, and we live in an area where two of the world's best breast cancer treatment groups are located - the Breast Care Center in Orange, CA and the Memorial Care group in Long Beach. As of yesterday, we were fortunate to discover that, eleven months later, through a combination of surgeries and chemotherapy, the scans that were done last week on the liver, lungs and bones all came back negative, so we hope to have many more years together. Dr. John Link is the friend of a friend and we consulted with him on treatment. As part of the consultation, he also gave us a copy of his book, which is very readable and understandable. It's particularly good at giving guidance on how to put together a treament program that's right for you as an individual. The Susan Love book is excellent, particularly as a reference for all the information you want to know when your life or the life of someone you love is at risk. The difference between the two is that the Link book provides a great overview and a guide for getting treatment, and the Love book is the reference for all the stuff that you want to look up when you have a question. And if you're like us, you'll have lots of questions because this is all very complex and it's very difficult to decide on what the best approach will be for your individual situation.
Rating:
Summary: One of the two best books available
Review: This is an excellent book, and well worth reading. But it's probably the second book to read, behind "The Breast Cancer Survival Manual : A Step-By-Step Guide for the Woman With Newly Diagnosed Cancer" by John Link. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer on January 5th of this year. Fortunately, she found it herself, through self-checking, and we live in an area where two of the world's best breast cancer treatment groups are located - the Breast Care Center in Orange, CA and the Memorial Care group in Long Beach. As of yesterday, we were fortunate to discover that, eleven months later, through a combination of surgeries and chemotherapy, the scans that were done last week on the liver, lungs and bones all came back negative, so we hope to have many more years together. Dr. John Link is the friend of a friend and we consulted with him on treatment. As part of the consultation, he also gave us a copy of his book, which is very readable and understandable. It's particularly good at giving guidance on how to put together a treament program that's right for you as an individual. The Susan Love book is excellent, particularly as a reference for all the information you want to know when your life or the life of someone you love is at risk. The difference between the two is that the Link book provides a great overview and a guide for getting treatment, and the Love book is the reference for all the stuff that you want to look up when you have a question. And if you're like us, you'll have lots of questions because this is all very complex and it's very difficult to decide on what the best approach will be for your individual situation.
Rating: 
Summary: . . . with a warning
Review: This is the first book I bought when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is the "bible" for women with the disease, and recommended by them for newly diagnosed women. And so many breast cancer patients can't be wrong. The book is chock full of great information. But for those of us diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, that information is so scarey and hopeless sounding that I began to wonder if I should even bother with treatment! I would never recommend the Breast Book for an IBC patient. (In fact, I warn them off, and I have talked with other women with IBC who had my same reaction.) I agree that it's important to be a "straight shooter" and give all the information, but to deny hope is a terrible thing -- especially in a field where the odds change every day, as new drugs and treatment regimens are discovered and implemented. No book on breast cancer will ever be truly "up to date." By the time it's published and available to readers, the research is at least a year old. But if Dr. Love wants to tell us how grim our outlook is, she also needs to point that out. (In fact, by the time I was diagnosed her book was sadly out of date with regard to IBC survival rates, which had skyrocketed with new treatments.) So, yes, a very good reference book, but one to be avoided by women newly diagnosed with IBC (and perhaps some other advanced breast cancers).
Rating:
Summary: . . . with a warning
Review: This is the first book I bought when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is the "bible" for women with the disease, and recommended by them for newly diagnosed women. And so many breast cancer patients can't be wrong. The book is chock full of great information. But for those of us diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, that information is so scarey and hopeless sounding that I began to wonder if I should even bother with treatment! I would never recommend the Breast Book for an IBC patient. (In fact, I warn them off, and I have talked with other women with IBC who had my same reaction.) I agree that it's important to be a "straight shooter" and give all the information, but to deny hope is a terrible thing -- especially in a field where the odds change every day, as new drugs and treatment regimens are discovered and implemented. No book on breast cancer will ever be truly "up to date." By the time it's published and available to readers, the research is at least a year old. But if Dr. Love wants to tell us how grim our outlook is, she also needs to point that out. (In fact, by the time I was diagnosed her book was sadly out of date with regard to IBC survival rates, which had skyrocketed with new treatments.) So, yes, a very good reference book, but one to be avoided by women newly diagnosed with IBC (and perhaps some other advanced breast cancers).
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for survivors working for early detection!
Review: This oncology field is changing so rapidly and there are conflicting data coming out. Therefore, her book is out of date before it's published. However, Dr. Love or someone must dedicted themselves to mapping the anatomy of the ductal system of the breast! Her work is presented well, and it is a good resource of those helping new patients, but not necessarily for the newly diagnosed patient.
Rating:
Summary: Read after the fear is under control
Review: When I was first diagnosed I was devastated and could not handle all the facts of breast cancer. It was only after I had somewhat gotten my bearings that this book became invaluable to me. It answered all those questions I forgot to ask my doctor and became a great comfort to me because I was able to find out things on my own, whenever I wanted, even at 3am. It empowered me. This book is full of great information...but not in the beginning when you need love, compassion and need to find your way.
Rating:
Summary: Another Breast Cancer Survivor
Review: When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer I was terrified. I had helped my mother-in-law die with breast cancer in the early 60's. I had known my first husband since I was 15 year old. I loved his mother very much. She suffered for 10 long agonizing years. I cared for her because her family all worked. I truely believe I married her son because I cared so much for her. They did a radical mastectomy that was groteque, she was so scared form the cobolt that she was black and blue. I used baby oil to calm the pain. I would sit with her when she was violently ill from the medications that she took. From the age of 16 until I was 26 I cared for her. The cancer went from her left breast,2 years later the right leg, 3 years later the right breast, and then it went to her brain. Through it all she never lost her faith in God or the strongest caring personality that I have ever known. The Susan Loves Breast Book erased all my fears and explained all the treatments and procedures. I felt like doctor S. Love was right there with me throughout my treatment even today. I will never have to suffer like my first mother-in-law. Neither her doctor or anyone told us what the treatments were for or what to expect during the treatments. I recommended the "Dr. Susan Loves Breast Book" to every woman whether or not she would ever have to face cancer because the book is complete in recommending prevention as well as symptoms of pre-cancer. I wish there would have been a book like this one back in 1960's.
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