Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 230
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4422-4515-0 • Hardback • July 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)
978-1-4422-4516-7 • eBook • July 2016 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
Claudia Cornwall, a freelance writer for over 25 years, has written six books and many magazine articles. Her memoir, Letter from Vienna: A Daughter Uncovers her Family's Jewish Past, won a BC Book Prize for best non-fiction. Her biography, At the World's Edge: Curt Lang's Vancouver, 1937-1998 was a finalist for the 2012 Vancouver Book Award. Her medical history, Catching Cancer: The Quest for Its Viral and Bacterial Causes, was selected by the American Library Association's publication, Booklist, as one of the best books of 2013 and short-listed for the Canadian Science Writers’ Association Book Awards (2013). Claudia also teaches in Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Black Tumor
1 A pimple-like thing
2 What’s real and what isn’t?
3 I will always love you
4 No oncologist will see you
5 Don’t worry about it
6 We have no way of monitoring success
7 The iconoclast: a visit with James Allison
8 A cloud of uncertainty
9 A hairy week so far
10 It’s not brain surgery
11 The first hill
12 Because I am an optimist
13 We have two slots left
14 An unexpected molecule
15 You’ve got to be kidding!
16 Now there are all of you
Bibliography
Melanoma—the term is derived from the Greek for 'black tumor'—is a cancer of the skin that is difficult to cure if not caught at an early stage. Canadian Cornwall shares her husband Gordon’s struggle with malignant melanoma. Diagnosed in 2012, the tumor appeared as a pimply growth on his left arm and metastasized to other sites, including his brain. She describes the multiple doctors who treated him and their occasional differences in medical opinion. Cornwall concludes, 'It seemed that no one person had a monopoly on the truth or the best course of action.' She details the many scans, biopsies, and surgeries Gordon undergoes along with radiation treatment. Paramount is his participation in a clinical trial with an investigational immunotherapy drug which proves highly effective for Gordon and is later approved by the FDA. Cornwall paints the fight against cancer as truly a team effort. Worry and uncertainty accompany the disease, but standing in its way are the bulwarks hope and love. Cornwall’s passionate account highlights the importance of diligence and persistence, hunches and luck.
— Booklist
In Battling Melanoma, Cornwall, a freelance writer, intensely describes both her and her husband’s journey through his diagnosis of melanoma. Told through both Canadian (primary and secondary care) and American (tertiary care) systems, Cornwall emphasizes the current push to achieve patient/family-centeredness and the need for patient engagement throughout a difficult diagnosis, even through sustained remission. During the narrative, the author discusses the experienced frustration, despair, and hope, as well as the need for participation in clinical trials for people with advanced cancers. Cornwall uses her and her husband’s experience with melanoma to explore possible changes in cancer treatment, moving from chemotherapy to immunomodulation and eventually to other forms of biologic-based therapies. Throughout the work, the author offers information for patients and their families to assist with experiencing the full range of emotions when dealing with complicated diagnoses and treatments, as well as ultimately finding hope in what can seem like darkness. Prominently, the author discusses navigating between a universal health system with long waiting times and more limited resources (Canada), and a somewhat disjointed but resource rich and monetarily rationed health system (United States). Summing Up:Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; professionals.
— Choice Reviews