A Cancer in the Family

Praise

“Ross combines her personal story with professional information…she tackles issues that face more and more people as scientific knowledge and capabilities expand.”
—Washington Post

“Authoritative and comforting without oversimplifying or sugarcoating and without sounding preachy or cheerleadery.”
—Oncology Times
 
“A Cancer in the Family offers you invaluable insights about the challenges patients face when their cancer may be hereditary. Regarding the key tasks at hand (such as obtaining a family history), she provides practical advice bolstered with useful metaphors and mantras that you can steal and use with your patients without a shred of guilt.”
—Oncology Times

“This book is an invaluable guide for a generation of people entering the new world of genetics. Moreover, it should be mandatory reading for medical students.” 
—The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Post

“[Ross] is a strong advocate for understanding family history and options for genetic testing… [Her patients] use what might seem a negative result as a gateway to a longer and healthier future. They make better lifestyle choices.”
—The Dallas Morning News

“An upbeat message that learning about a cancer mutation in one’s family history is not about coping with bad news; it is about taking control and making choices…Highly recommended: an exceptionally well-organized, authoritative, and readable resource book.”
—Kirkus Starred Review

“Packed with information shared by a compassionate and empathetic voice, Ross’s tome is a thoughtful and measured tool for health advocacy that many will find useful.” 
—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“Ross weaves a brief overview of genetic theory, hereditary cancers, and her personal/familial struggles with cancer into a book that is more than the sum of these parts: an intriguing read even for persons not looking for specific cancer-related information.”
—Library Journal

“Knowledge of oneself is paramount to long term health.  Theodora Ross candidly and expertly shows us, through personal and inspiring stories, what that means when the knowledge demonstrates a genetic predisposition to cancer. An important and eye-opening book.”
—David B. Agus, MD, Author, The End of Illness and The Lucky Years
 
“Dr. Ross’ wonderful book has changed the way I practice.  It should be mandatory reading for every medical student and primary care provider.”
—Marshall A. Wolf, MD, Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School
 
“What would you do if the tables were turned and you became the patient instead of the doctor?  This is exactly what happened to breast oncologist and researcher, Dr. Theo Ross . . . A must read for anyone with cancer in their family.”
—Heather Hampel, MS, LGC, Clinical Cancer Genetics Program professor at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
 
“Ross guides us through this landscape with astonishing personal honesty, clear thinking, openness, and persistence.  She explains – with an empathy that can only arise from inhabiting the worlds of doctor and patient simultaneously – how all of us (professionals and laypeople alike) with or without a family history of cancer, need help understanding genetics.  We need help digging up our family histories, confronting those histories, and making the decisions that will protect us and our families.” 
—From the foreword by Siddhartha Mukherjeee, MD, PhD, author of The Emperor of All Maladies