Coping with Breast Cancer is not referenced throughout but contains a list of Sources of Information used in this book in the Acknowledgements. There is also a Useful addresses section , a brief list of Further reading, and a Glossary of medical terms.

It is useful and heartening to read a book written from a UK perspective which describes the tests, hospital team and environment, and approaches to treatment that a patient is likely to encounter in the NHS. There is also a chapter on Breast Cancer and Work which includes a section on Claiming Benefit. Coping with Breast Cancer is a very positive book and Dr. Heyderman's bias is undisguisedly pro the medical establishment. Dissatisfaction with care and delivery of care in the NHS is dismissed with advice such as

"It doesn't help to be unpleasant to the doctors or nurses because you are fed up at being kept waiting - they are already stressed and doing their best, often under difficult conditions."

"Some GPS are not very sympathetic, and regard women complaining of breast pain as neurotic. Change to a GP who is more understanding."

In the chapter on Complementary Medicine, Dr. Heyderman acknowledges a need for holistic care and agrees that some complementary therapies improve quality of life. Brief descriptions are given of eighteen complementary methods from Acupuncture to Yoga. The section is prefaced and followed by statements on the need for controlled trials to provide independent proof of the efficacy of these methods.

Dr Heyderman suggests that the "so-called 'magic bullet'" approach might defeat breast cancer, stating in her concluding chapter

"If you have breast cancer, even if it has spread, hang in there. Tomorrow a miracle drug or some other type of therapy may be discovered which will revolutionize treatment."

(Review by Marie Nally.)

About these pages: Contact Nina Pope- UKBCA@somewhere.org.uk