Colon & Rectal Cancer: From Diagnosis to Treatment - Couverture souple

This book covers topics such as symptoms and risk factors of colon and rectal cancer; medical tests for getting a diagnosis; the importance of staging the cancer; benefits and risks of various treatments; surgery, radiation, chemotherapy-how they work; and how colon cancer can be prevented.

Aimed at the patient and caregiver, this guide is authored by a board-certified general surgeon and thyroid specialist. Ruggieri's The Surgery Handbook (Addicus, 1999) was a good overview of what to expect during an operation. Here, he reduces the essentials of colon and rectal cancer care to the most basic levels but with less success. Although the information is clearly presented and covers the standard areas of colon and rectal cancer care, it lacks the needed detail to benefit the reader. For example, the discussion about colostomy and its impact on sexual activity (an important subject to patients) glosses over the female point of view by simply observing, "Women normally have no loss of sexual function due to colostomy." Even though each chapter ends with the helpful "Questions To Ask the Doctor," one very important query is omitted: What is the standard/investigational treatment by stage? The glossary is also disappointing, offering explanations too simple to clarify important and difficult concepts. The American Cancer Society's Colorectal Cancer (1999) is the better choice. Not recommended. Gail Hendler, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Ctr., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.