James S. Olson

ISBN 0-8018-6936-6
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2002

This is a highly compressed history of breast cancer throughout the ages. Written by a historian, it provides almost more detail than anyone could wish for but, unfortunately, no clear point-of-view. The early chapters are grisly, leaving one to imagine the years and years of gross mastectomy with no anesthetic and without any real hope of curbing the disease. More recent times cover the activities of any number of breast cancer activists with familiar names: Rose Kushner, Betty Rollin, Susan Love, John Bailar, as well as the demise of the Halsted procedure, and the emergence of standard contemporary treatment — lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy.

Olson rightly criticizes the hyperbole surrounding developments in breast cancer treatment over the ages but apparently succumbs to his own form of hyperbole in the Epilogue, where decreasing mortality and modern treatment appear to crown centuries of fumbling in the dark. For BCAM members, the final word should perhaps go to Rachel Carson — dead at 56 of breast cancer, "...[A]s we pour our millions into research and invest all our hopes in vast programs to find cures for established cases of cancer, we are neglecting the golden opportunity to prevent, even while we seek to cure." (p. 230 — emphasis mine)

Janine O'Leary Cobb