Prostate news article, August 2004
| BOOK REVIEW
FOR 'PROSTATE CANCER : THE FACTS'
Written by: Malcolm Mason and Leslie Moffat Published by: Oxford University Press, 2003 ISBN 0-19-263144-6 Reviewed by: Mr Zach Dovey, MRCP FRCS |
This is a book which aims to educate the interested "layperson" to a higher level than would be found in the average pamphlet available in a Urology out-patients department. Essentially it is written for patients and carers. The chapters include discussions of assessment, screening, radical treatment, hormone therapy, locally advanced and advanced disease, and alternative treatments with additional chapters on clinical trials and prostate cancer and sex. At the conclusion, there is a question and answer section which is excellent, giving very clear answers to common questions and, finally, a glossary of terms.
All the information is there, concisely written under the appropriate headings. This format allows the reader both to dip into chapters and take useful scraps of information or read each chapter more thoroughly for the whole picture. The section on clinical trials will be enlightening to most laypeople as this kind of information is not readily available, and the emotive issue of sexually related problems with prostate cancer and its treatment will also be very useful to patients. You would not expect undergraduate medical students on a urology attachment to have this level of understanding.
On the negative side, the illustrations tend to be bland and infrequent and the text lacks for tables that summarise and emphasise key points to make the booklet generally more user friendly. Also, although the chapters on screening present current thinking, if, for example, my male relatives were to read them, I think they would be left confused and anxious with more unanswered questions than when they started.
Nevertheless any book that aims to raise public awareness and education on prostate cancer is worthwhile and, as an adjunct to discussions between patients and their urologists, this book should make that task easier.