Getting to the front of the line
August 23rd, 2016
Claudia Cornwall’s Battling Melanoma doesn’t only take the reader through the emotional upheaval that can follow a diagnosis of cancer, in her words it “also demonstrates what activist patients can do to help themselves.
“The world of cancer is changing rapidly, and now with the latest scientific data only a few keyboard clicks away, patients and their families can access the most up to date information and find treatments for conditions that only recently were deemed incurable.
The jacket copy for Claudia Cornwall’s Battling Melanoma: One Couple’s Struggle from Diagnosis to Cure (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield $38 U.S.) can’t be improved upon:
“In June 2013, Gordon Cornwall’s melanoma went metastatic and spread to his brain. He and his wife, Claudia, thought it was “game-over.” But his oncologist encouraged them to look for a clinical trial that might work for his form of melanoma. After embarking on a continent-wide search, they found a study in Texas with spots for just two more patients. They scrambled to get Gordon enrolled, and in August 2013, three days after he had his first infusion, he was astonished to see a lump on his shoulder softening and shrinking. Three months later, in November, a CT-scan revealed that all his tumors had disappeared.
“This story of one couple’s battle to beat melanoma illustrates how a new treatment, immunotherapy, can defeat even aggressive forms of the disease. It also shows how patients can access the most advanced therapies by enrolling in clinical trials. Claudia describes Gordon’s case and learns from conversations with eminent researchers. She paints a portrait of an illness that is difficult but not impossible to combat. With vivid firsthand accounts from their diaries, as well as Claudia’s intimate narrative of the ups and downs of cancer treatment, this book will be a ready resource for melanoma patients and their families. It demonstrates how they can fight the disease medically as well as support each other emotionally and physically.” 978-1-4422-4515-0
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