Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer, and HistoryAn absorbing and unsettling history of breast cancer told through the stories of women who have confronted it from ancient times to the present. A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year In 1967, an Italian surgeon touring Amsterdam’s Rijks museum stopped in front of Rembrandt’s Bathsheba at Her Bath and noticed an asymmetry to Bathsheba’s left breast; it seemed distended, swollen near the armpit, discolored, and marked with a distinctive pitting. The physician learned that Rembrandt’s model, Hendrickje Stoffels, later died after a long illness. He conjectured that the cause of her death was almost certainly breast cancer. In Bathsheba’s Breast, James S. Olson traces the history of breast cancer through women’s experiences of the disease across epochs and continents. The stories range from the sixth-century Byzantine empress Theodora, who chose to die rather than lose her breast to Dr. Jerri Nielson, who was evacuated from the South Pole in 1999 after performing a biopsy on her own breast and self-administering chemotherapy. Olson explores every facet of the disease: medicine’s evolving understanding of its pathology and treatment options; its cultural significance; the political and economic logic that has dictated the terms of a war on a “woman’s disease”; and the rise of patient activism. “An invaluable aid to those breast cancer survivors with an interest in taking the long view of their illness.” —Nick Owchar Los Angeles Times |
Contents
1 | |
27 | |
CHAPTER THREE William Stewart Halsted and the Radical Mastectomy | 45 |
CHAPTER FOUR Superradicals and the Medicine of Mutilation | 65 |
CHAPTER FIVE New Beginnings ASSULT ON THE RADICAL MASTECTOMY | 86 |
CHAPTER SIX Beauty and the Breast THE GREAT AMERICAN OBSESSION | 100 |
CHAPTER SEVEN Out of the Closet BREAST CANCER IN THE 1970S | 124 |
CHAPTER EIGHT Patient Heal Thyself QUACKS AND CURES IN THE AGE OF NARCISSISM | 145 |
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Common terms and phrases
American Cancer Society Anne argued axilla became benign Bernard Fisher biopsy birth control black bile blood body breast cancer breast cancer patients breast reconstruction cancer cells cancer treatment carcinogens carcinoma Carson century chemotherapy chest muscles claimed cure death developed disease doctor drug early England Journal epidemiologists estrogen glands Halsted radical Halsted radical mastectomy hormone Hospital Houston ical Jerri Nielsen Jill John Journal of Medicine Keynes Kushner laetrile later lesions long-term lump lumpectomies lymph nodes malignant mammary mammograms mammography metastases million modified radical mastectomy mother Nabby National Cancer Institute Nielsen oncologists Oncology oophorectomies operation ovaries pain percent performed physicians pills political procedure radiation radiotherapy recurrence removed reported risk scientific scientists sexual Simonton skin spread superradical mastectomy surgeons surgery surgical survival rates tamoxifen tectomy therapy tion tissues told took treat tumor cells tumors Urban wanted William Stewart Halsted woman women Women’s Health wrote York