The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America

Barron H Lerner

Oxford University Press, £19.99, pp 383

ISBN 0 19 514261 6

Rating:

If you wonder why American women pin pink ribbons to their jackets and go in their thousands in “runs for the cure,” this book will give you the history.

In a readable style with realms of research, Barron Lerner, an associate professor, medical historian, and practising physician in New York, outlines the history of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in the 20th century.

Lerner describes the first battles: over surgical treatment for breast …