The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America

408 Pages·2003·13.86 MB·English

by  Barron H. Lerner

T H E
B R E A S T
C A N C E R
W A R S
Fear, Hope, and the Pursuit of a Cure
in Twentieth-Century America
B A R R O W H. L E R N E R . M.D.

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Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure
in Twentieth-Century America
Barron H. Lerner, M.D.
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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Copyright O 200 1 by Barron H. Lerner
First published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2003
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lerner. Barron H.
The breast cancer wars : fear, hope, and the pursuit of a cure
in twentieth-century America / Barron Lerner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-514261-6 (cloth)
ISBN-13 978-0-19-5 1610 6-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-19-5 16106-8 (pbk.)
1. Breast-Cancer-United States-History-20th Century.
I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Breast Neoplasms-history-United States.
2. Breast Neoplasms-surgery-United States.
3. History of Medicine, 20th Cent.-United States.
4. Mastectomy-history-United States. WP 11 AA1 L616b 200 11
RC280.B8 L375 20001
61 6.99'449'00973-dc2 1 00-06391
35798642
Printed in the United States of America

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"War is a science, with rules to be applied, whch good solders appreciate,
recall and recapitulate, before they go to decimate the other side."
-From the Broadway musical Pippin
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Preface
Abbreviations
1 Introduction
2 Establishing a Tradition
William Halsted and the Radical Mastectomy
3 Inventing a Curable Disease
Breast Cancer Control after World War I1
t The Scalpel Triumphant
Radical Surgery in the 1950s
5 A Heretical Interlude
Biology as Fate
6 Reality Check
Breast Cancer Treatment and Randomized
Controlled Trials
7 "I Alone Am in Charge of My Body"
Breast Cancer Patients in Revolt
8 No Shrinking Violet
Rose Kushner and the Maturation
of Brat Cancer Activism