Surviving the Cancer System: An Empowering Guide to Taking Control of Your Care

[This] book meets the challenge of containing a wealth of practical information while being remarkably easy to read. It covers so many aspects of cancers that all of us, patients, family members, physicians, and caregivers, will find it a long-lasting reference. It is an honest and often moving account of cancer patients and of your experiences. I recommend this book to cancer patients, libraries, and health professionals.

Dr. Yves Pommier, National Cancer Institute Lab Director

If you or someone you care about is facing cancer, you need to know this: You re fighting more than an illness. You re battling an impersonal and complex health­care system where the unspoken reality is that the quality of care you receive is directly related to how knowledgeable you are as a patient.

Surviving the Cancer System can literally save your life. Written by a respected oncologist and patient advocate, this all-in-one guide takes you inside the system to reveal invaluable strategies for getting the care you need, including:

How to turn your panic into a proactive plan of action and avoid potentially fatal delays

What to look for in an oncologist to ensure that he or she will meticulously coordinate your care and relentlessly pursue treatment options

How cancers are classified, and why some seemingly ominous prognoses, such as stage IV testicular cancer that has traveled to the brain, are actually highly treatable

Why fears of the side effects from chemotherapy and radiation are often exaggerated and can cloud your decision-making abilities

How to decide between perplexing treatment options, such as a mastectomy or a lumpectomy with radiation therapy

Nothing provokes more dread and confusion than cancer. Surviving the Cancer System arms you with the knowledge and power you need to confront the challenges ahead from navigating an indifferent bureaucracy to weighing the value of clinical trials, and from managing costs to maximizing chances of survival.

Mark R. Fesen, MD, FACP, is an oncologist and internist with 15 years of clinical practice caring for his patients and their myriad diseases from lymphomas and breast cancer to lung cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. He is a graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has trained at the National Cancer Institute and is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Kansas. He lives in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Mark Fesen, MD, FACP (Hutchinson, KS), an oncologist, has dedicated 28 years of education and 14 years of clinical practice to better care for his patients and their diseases—from lymphomas and breast cancer to lung cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer.