September 1, 2017
This new book from Ruddy (breast cancer surgeon, medical director of New Jersey's Clara Maass Medical Center, and founder of the Breast Health and Healing Foundation) brings together information about viruses and breast cancer. While certain genes have been shown to increase the risk for breast cancer, there is less research on how some viruses could be related to the disease and how immunotherapy could be a viable remedy. This book, a republication of the author's Of Mice and Women: Unraveling the Mystery of the Breast Cancer Virus (2015), reviews the history of research into viral causes of breast cancer and recent studies seeking to create a vaccine. Viral research has the potential to explain some breast cancers of unknown origin, as well as provide targeted therapy for precision medicine. VERDICT Important for those in health care who are unfamiliar with the viral causes of cancer, as well as patients wishing to know more.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2017
Ruddy, a breast-cancer surgeon, knows how to wield a pen, not just a scalpel. Does a virus cause breast cancer in women? Maybe. Skeptics will justifiably think Ruddy's declarative oversells this idea. Yet she clearly and eloquently explains why she believes scientists should be granted more time and money to investigate whether, as with HPV and cervical cancer, a virus could cause a large number of breast cancer cases and whether a vaccine could stop it. Ruddy packs her thoroughly researched book about the most common female malignancy in the world with many wow-worthy tidbits about scientific, political, and medical history. For example, Abbie Lathrop, a self-taught mouse breeder, collaborated with University of Pennsylvania pathologist Leo Loeb and found that strains of mice with a higher incidence of breast cancer entered puberty at an earlier age and developed their tumors at an earlier age. In all, Ruddy offers a fresh take on a disease that still kills more than 40,000 women in the U.S. yearly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)