SURVIVOR: Taking Control of Your Fight Against Cancer

by Laura Landro ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1998

A savvy Wall Street Journal editor expands a prize-winning Journal article on surviving cancer into a full-length gutsy account of how she dealt with both the illness and the bone-marrow transplant that saved her life. When Landro was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 1991 at the age of 37, she drew on all her resources to fight the disease. An assertive journalist with knowledgeable colleagues and good connections, she knew how to get information, and she was fortunate in having loyal friends and family, excellent medical insurance, a supportive employer, and ample financial resources. She was also blessed with two brothers willing and able to provide matching bone marrow for the transplant. Landro relates just how she went about taking control of her life. She began by educating herself: researching the clinical literature, interviewing scientists and doctors, visiting hospital transplant units, and talking to people who had had bone-marrow transplants. Although she was living in New York, she opted not for the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering but for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, because she became convinced that the techniques used there would give her her best chance of surviving. A large part of her account deals with her weeks there undergoing the harrowing treatment. As she makes clear in her narrative, today the Internet has made medical information much more accessible to the average person than it was in the early 1990s; thus, even without her journalistic know-how, it's relatively easy to tap into a wealth of data. In concluding chapters, she sums up her advice on how to get needed information and support, and she provides a well-annotated list of the most helpful organization and their Web sites and e-mail addresses. Worth reading for feisty message: ""It's your life, and it's up to you to save it.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0684856786

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

Categories: NONFICTION