Download or read book The Activist Cancer Patient written by Beverly Zakarian and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 1996-04-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improve Your Odds of Surviving Cancer Cancer survivor Beverly Zakarian knows firsthand that you can improve your odds of surviving cancer if you take an active role in your treatment. Now, you too can discover the benefits of taking charge. After all, you and your disease are unique, and so is your path to good health. Even the most caring of doctors needs your help to determine which treatment is best for you. With this inspiring, practical book, Beverly Zakarian gives you step-by-step guidelines that will empower you to work with your doctor and within the medical system to find the most effective treatment options. Armed with the resources in this book, you'll be able to use activist techniques to: * Talk intelligently with your physician and make informed decisions * Research state-of-the-art treatments * Understand how drug trials actually work * Discover what "experimental treatment" really means * Search out relevant medical journals and access reliable databases * Enlist the help of medical specialists and support groups

Download or read book So Much to Be Done written by Barbara Brenner and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What kind of cancer is it?” was the first question Barbara Brenner asked her doctor after hearing that the lump in her breast was malignant. His answer: “You don't need to know that.” Wrong response. Brenner, who was already an activist, made knowing her business and spreading knowledge her mission. The power behind Breast Cancer Action and its transformative Think Before You Pink® campaign, Barbara Brenner brought an abundance of wit, courage, and clarity to the cause and forever changed the conversation. What had been construed as an individual crisis could now be seen for what it was: a pressing concern of public health and social justice, with environmental issues at the center of prevention efforts. Collected in So Much to Be Done, and framed by personal accounts of Barbara and her influential work, Brenner’s columns and blog posts form a chronicle of breast cancer research and health care activism that is as inspiring as it is informative. As she takes on the corporate forces at work in breast cancer research and treatment and in the “pinkwashing” of fund-raising for the cause, Brenner, a self-described hell-raiser, contends with cancer herself, twice, and her words offer understanding and encouragement to all those whose lives are touched by the disease. When Brenner was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, she broadened her critique of health care while also writing about her own experience. Infused with her characteristic moxie, humor, anger, and compassion, these reflections from her last two years provide an in-depth, precisely observed portrayal of what it is to live with a terminal disease and to die on one’s own terms.

Download or read book The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer written by Maren Klawiter and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly forty years, feminists and patient activists have argued that medicine is a deeply individualizing and depoliticizing institution. According to this view, medical practices are incidental to people’s transformation from patients to patient activists. The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer turns this understanding upside down. Maren Klawiter analyzes the evolution of the breast cancer movement to show the broad social impact of how diseases come to be medically managed and publicly administered. Examining surgical procedures, adjuvant therapies, early detection campaigns, and the rise in discourses of risk, Klawiter demonstrates that these practices created a change in the social relations-if not the mortality rate-of breast cancer that initially inhibited, but later enabled, collective action. Her research focuses on the emergence and development of new forms of activism that range from grassroots patient empowerment to environmental activism and corporate-funded breast cancer awareness. The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer opens a window onto a larger set of changes currently transforming medically advanced societies and ultimately challenges our understanding of the origins, politics, and future of the breast cancer movement. Maren Klawiter holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently pursuing a law degree at Yale University.

Download or read book Cancer Activism written by Karen M. Kedrowski and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive study of the breast cancer and the prostate cancer movements

Download or read book Cancer Talk written by Selma R. Schimmel and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-04-21 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, Cancer Talk provides a support group in a book. Research shows that cancer patients who attend support groups can survive longer and lead fuller lives than patients receiving medical treatment alone. Cancer Talk, based on "The Group Room®," the nation's only talk-radio cancer support show, brings hope, information, and inspiration to everyone affected by cancer. Show host Selma Schimmel, a cancer advocate and longtime survivor, has gathered the voices of cancer patients and survivors, family and friends, physicians, therapists, and other healthcare professionals to create an invaluable guide to help you: Deal with the wide range of emotions a cancer diagnosis provokes Cope with relationships, intimacy, and physical changes Optimize the doctor-patient relationship and navigate treatment options Handle the side effects of treatment Understand legal, workplace, and insurance issues Live with and beyond cancer Anyone whose life has been touched by cancer will find new support from the intimate and empowering voices of the only real experts out there--the people who live with cancer.

Download or read book The Living Room written by Bonnie J. Addario and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lung Cancer. The mere words strike fear in all of us—fear of the diagnosis, the treatment, and the ultimate prognosis. Where is the hope? It can be found in The Living Room by Bonnie Addario, a seventeen-year survivor of stage 3B lung cancer who established the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation in 2006 along with the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute in 2008, and is now co-founder and chair of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer (2019). A determined activist on behalf of patients suffering from the disease, Bonnie has built an extraordinary global network of fellow activists, patients, doctors, oncologists, researchers, and caregivers—a thriving and ever-growing community devoted and committed to advocating on behalf of those patients and families affected by the disease. Among all cancers, none are more pernicious than lung cancer. Nearly 150,000 Americans are lost to the disease every year, amounting to around 400 every single day. It accounts for one-third of all cancer diagnoses, the most deaths of any cancer and as many losses as the next three most deadly cancers (breast, prostate, and colon) combined. The Living Room, which draws its name from a virtual support group live-streamed internationally once a month by Bonnie’s foundation, tells the stories of twenty lung cancer patients who have bravely fought the disease and found ways to thrive, not just to survive. The goal of Bonnie’s efforts is to break down the barriers and stigmas associated with lung cancer and demonstrate how the new wave of treatment options are moving to make it a manageable disease. The people you will meet in The Living Room will lead you to believe that miracles are all around us, that they’re happening every day, and that they just might happen to the next cancer patient who picks up this book. All proceeds from The Living Room will go directly to research and patient services.

Download or read book The Cancer Whisperer written by Sophie Sabbage and published by Coronet. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I have cancer. Cancer does not have me.' Sophie Sabbage was diagnosed with late stage 'incurable' lung cancer in October 2014. She was 48 years old, happily married with a 4-year-old daughter. Since that day - when doctors told Sophie that her prognosis was poor - she has been on a remarkable journey of healing and transformation that has reshaped her vocation as well as changed her life for the better. The Cancer Whisperer chronicles Sophie's extraordinary relationship with cancer and the methods that she has used for dealing with fear, anger, denial and grief. The essence of 'cancer whispering' was born of Sophie's determination to take cancer off the battlefield and into the classroom. Instead of going to war with it, Sophie has chosen to listen to it, learn from it and choose her own response to it. Sophie offers a radically different way of relating to this disease both mentally and practically: she shares the research she has done, the treatments she has chosen, the diet she follows and the resources that she feels have made the biggest differences in the hope that they will help others cut through the mass of information out there. Sophie says: 'This book is for the cancer patient who wants to remain a dignified, empowered human being even when your doctors and diagnosis are scaring the hell out of you. It is also for the cancer patient who has a hunch that there is something for them to learn, gain or even be transformed by - if they just knew how to relate to this disease differently to the way most of society does. It is for the cancer patient, perhaps any patient.'

Download or read book Health Advocacy Inc written by Sharon Batt and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past several decades, a gradual reduction in state funding has pressured patient groups into forming private-sector partnerships, raising an important ethical question: do these alliances ultimately lead to policies that are counter to the public interest? Health activist, scholar, and cancer survivor Sharon Batt examines the issue by investigating Canada’s breast cancer movement from 1990 to 2010. Health Advocacy, Inc. dissects the relationship between the companies that sell pharmaceuticals and the individuals who use them, drawing links between neoliberalism and corporate financing and the ensuing threat to the public health care system. Combining archival analysis, interviews with advocacy and industry representatives, and personal observation, Batt argues that the resulting power imbalance continues to challenge the groups’ ability to put patients’ interests ahead of those of the funders. A movement that once encouraged democratic participation in the development of health policy now eerily echoes the demands of the pharmaceutical industry. Batt’s thorough account of this shift defines the stakes of activism in public health today.

Download or read book Before Pink Ribbons written by Chloe Bell-Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Over the course of the twentieth century, breast cancer shifted from being a taboo subject to one openly discussed. Though historians have long recognized the importance of breast cancer as a lens through which to examine the intersection of gender, disease, and society, little attention has been paid to the activist movement that brought the disease into the spotlight of both culture and politics by the end of the century. From the inception of the American Society for the Control of Cancer (the predecessor to the American Cancer Society) in 1913 to the first Race for the Cure hosted by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1983, women contributed their time and labor to overcoming the stigma surrounding the disease and worked to end its grip on women. In examining the long story of breast cancer activism, this thesis illuminates the changes and continuities in the movement. Using a combination of media sources and private correspondence, this work argues that women used breast cancer activism as an avenue through which to gain agency in a patriarchal medical world that typically denied them autonomy over their bodies and treatment. Finally, taking into account social status, privilege, and the context in which people lived, this thesis complicates the notion of linear progress in the work against the disease as conflict and power struggles came to the forefront of cancer discourse.

Download or read book Taking Charge of Breast Cancer written by Julia Ericksen and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-04-07 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vividly showcasing diverse voices and experiences, this book illuminates an all-too-common experience by exploring how women respond to a diagnosis of breast cancer. Drawing from interviews in which women describe their journeys from diagnosis through treatment and recovery, Julia A. Ericksen explores topics ranging from women's trust in their doctors to their feelings about appearance and sexuality. She includes the experiences of women who do not put their faith in traditional medicine as well as those who do, and she takes a look at the long-term consequences of this disease. What emerges from her powerful and often moving account is a compelling picture of how cultural messages about breast cancer shape women's ideas about their illness, how breast cancer affects their relationships with friends and family, why some of them become activists, and more. Ericksen, herself a breast cancer survivor, has written an accessible book that reveals much about the ways in which we narrate our illnesses and about how these narratives shape the paths we travel once diagnosed.

Download or read book Patient No More written by Sharon Batt and published by Spinifex Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cancer Whisperer written by Sophie Sabbage and published by Coronet. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I have cancer. Cancer does not have me.' Sophie Sabbage was diagnosed with late stage 'incurable' lung cancer in October 2014. She was 48 years old, happily married with a 4-year-old daughter. Since that day - when doctors told Sophie that her prognosis was poor - she has been on a remarkable journey of healing and transformation that has reshaped her vocation as well as changed her life for the better. The Cancer Whisperer chronicles Sophie's extraordinary relationship with cancer and the methods that she has used for dealing with fear, anger, denial and grief. The essence of 'cancer whispering' was born of Sophie's determination to take cancer off the battlefield and into the classroom. Instead of going to war with it, Sophie has chosen to listen to it, learn from it and choose her own response to it. Sophie offers a radically different way of relating to this disease both mentally and practically: she shares the research she has done, the treatments she has chosen, the diet she follows and the resources that she feels have made the biggest differences in the hope that they will help others cut through the mass of information out there. Sophie says: 'This book is for the cancer patient who wants to remain a dignified, empowered human being even when your doctors and diagnosis are scaring the hell out of you. It is also for the cancer patient who has a hunch that there is something for them to learn, gain or even be transformed by - if they just knew how to relate to this disease differently to the way most of society does. It is for the cancer patient, perhaps any patient.'

Download or read book Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos written by Amelie G. Ramirez and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book gives an overview of the sessions, panel discussions, and outcomes of the Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference, held in February 2018 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and hosted by the Mays Cancer Center and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. Latinos – the largest, youngest, and fastest-growing minority group in the United States – are expected to face a 142% rise in cancer cases in coming years. Although there has been substantial advancement in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment over the past few decades, addressing Latino cancer health disparities has not nearly kept pace with progress. The diverse and dynamic group of speakers and panelists brought together at the Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference provided in-depth insights as well as progress and actionable goals for Latino-focused basic science research, clinical best practices, community interventions, and what can be done by way of prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer in Latinos. These insights have been translated into the chapters included in this compendium; the chapters summarize the presentations and include current knowledge in the specific topic areas, identified gaps, and top priority areas for future cancer research in Latinos. Topics included among the chapters: Colorectal cancer disparities in Latinos: Genes vs. Environment Breast cancer risk and mortality in women of Latin American origin Differential cancer risk in Latinos: The role of diet Overcoming barriers for Latinos on cancer clinical trials Es tiempo: Engaging Latinas in cervical cancer research Emerging policies in U.S. health care Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos proves to be an indispensable resource offering key insights into actionable targets for basic science research, suggestions for clinical best practices and community interventions, and novel strategies and advocacy opportunities to reduce health disparities in Latino communities. It will find an engaged audience among researchers, academics, physicians and other healthcare professionals, patient advocates, students, and others with an interest in the broad field of Latino cancer.

Download or read book Pink Ribbons Inc written by Samantha King and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The commercialization of the breast cancer movement is challenged in this analysis of how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship.

Download or read book Health Advocacy Inc written by Sharon Batt and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Health activist, scholar, award-winning journalist, and cancer survivor Sharon Batt investigates the relationship between patient advocacy groups and the pharmaceutical industry as well as the contentious role of pharma funding. Over the past several decades, a gradual reduction in state funding has pressured patient groups into forming private-sector partnerships. This analysis of Canada’s breast cancer movement from 1990 to 2010 shows that the resulting power imbalance undermined the groups’ ability to put patients’ interests ahead of those of the funders. A movement that once encouraged democratic participation in the development of health policy now eerily echoes the demands of the pharmaceutical industry.

Download or read book From Whispers to Shouts written by Elaine Schattner and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s hard today to remember how recently cancer was a silent killer, a dreaded disease about which people rarely spoke in public. In hospitals and doctors’ offices, conversations about malignancy were hushed and hope was limited. In this deeply researched book, Elaine Schattner reveals a sea change—from before 1900 to the present day—in how ordinary people talk about cancer. From Whispers to Shouts examines public perception of cancer through stories in newspapers and magazines, social media, and popular culture. It probes the evolving relationship between journalists and medical specialists and illuminates the role of women and charities that distributed medical information. Schattner traces the origins of patient advocacy and activism from the 1920s onward, highlighting how, while doctors have lost control of messages about cancer, survivors have gained visibility and voice. The book’s final section lays out provocative questions facing the cancer community today—including distrust of oncologists, concerns over financial burdens, and disparities in cancer treatments and care. Schattner considers how patients and their loved ones struggle to make decisions amid conflicting information and opinions. She explores the ramifications of so much openness, good and bad, and asks: Has awareness backfired? Instead, Schattner contends, we need greater understanding of cancer’s treatability.

Download or read book Early Detection written by Kirsten E. Gardner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2006-12-08 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispelling the common notion that American women became activists in the fight against female cancer only after the 1970s, Kirsten E. Gardner traces women's cancer education campaigns back to the early twentieth century. Focusing on breast cancer, but using research on cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers as well, Gardner's examination of films, publications, health fairs, and archival materials shows that women have promoted early cancer detection since the inception of the American Society for the Control of Cancer in 1913. While informing female audiences about cancer risks, these early activists also laid the groundwork for the political advocacy and patient empowerment movements of recent decades. By the 1930s there were 300,000 members of the Women's Field Army working together with women's clubs. They held explicit discussions about the risks, detection, and incidence of cancer and, by mid-century, were offering advice about routine breast self-exams and annual Pap smears. The feminist health movement of the 1970s, Gardner explains, heralded a departure for female involvement in women's health activism. As before, women encouraged early detection, but they simultaneously demanded increased attention to gender and medical research, patient experiences, and causal factors. Our understanding of today's vibrant feminist health movement is enriched by Gardner's work recognizing women's roles in grassroots educational programs throughout the twentieth century and their creation of supportive networks that endure today.