The Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer: Take Charge of Your Recovery and Remission - Hardcover

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. It was found by accident on a chest x-ray, and I was shocked. There was no history of breast cancer in my family, and I never thought it could happen to me.

My second shock was encountering the medical establishment and its "standard of care." They wanted me to follow their program of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormones even though those things don't work for many people, and even though they have serious side effects. I wanted to make my own informed decisions, but, like most people, I knew next to nothing about breast cancer. I had to scramble to find what information I could under the pressure of time, knowing that the cancer could be spreading.

The personal became political as I encountered the cancer establishment with its one-size-fits-all standard of care, the corporations responsible for the carcinogens in the environment, research funded by the corporations, legislators who rely on corporate contributions to keep their jobs, and the cancer charities that take corporate money in return for pinkwashing.

"The Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer" is the story of my journey and all the things I learned. In some cases I learned them too late; some of my decisions would have been different if I had known then what I know now. I realized that I had to write this book to empower others to take charge of their care.

As of now, I have no evidence of breast cancer, but I am at high risk for recurrence or metastasis, so I am not able to simply return to the life I had before. Conventional cancer care offers periodic tests to see whether the cancer has returned, but it does not offer anything beyond hormone therapy to prevent the cancer from returning. The problem is that if it returns it will likely no longer be curable. I had to go outside of conventional oncology, where I found a lot of evidence that changing one's "terrain" can keep the cancer dormant. Working with an integrative oncologist, I follow a program of diet, supplements, exercise, mental/spiritual practices, and avoidance of environmental carcinogens.

Breast cancer,already the most common cancer in the United States, is projected to rise by 50% by 2030, according to researchers at the National Cancer Institute(NCI).  They expect 441,000 new cases in 2030, up from 283,000 in 2011.   This despite the $500 billion that has been poured into research since President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971.  

This year, more than 40,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer in the United States,and the "standard of care" they will receive --- some combination of surgery,chemotherapy,radiation, and hormones-- will not save them.  

When Dr. Maker was diagnosed in 2011, she,like most people, knew almost nothing about breast cancer.  What she did know is that she didn't feel safe simply following her doctors' advice.She needed to understand for herself all her treatment options, the statistical outcomes for each option, and all the potential side effects, so she could make informed decisions.  Because of her academic background and expertise as a researcher, she discovered a great deal about the disease and its treatments that few lay people are aware of.  The Thinking Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer is the story of her journey and the things she learned along the way.   This information helped her, and it can help you.