CASUAL FURNISHINGS
To Know or Not?
Journalist Karen Stabiner challenges women
to learn the truth about breast cancer.
• EDITH BROIDA
Special to the Jewish News
aren Stabiner acknowl-
edges that she may face an
uneasy audience when she
speaks at the Detroit
Medical Center-Sinai Hospital
"Women in Philanthropy" luncheon
on Monday, Oct. 20, at Temple
Israel.
As the author of To Dance with the
Devil: The New War on Breast Cancer,
• she acknowledged that there are
/ -many who still want to blame the
messenger for the information she
has gathered in her comprehensive
study of breast cancer — the political
aspects and power struggles in the
area of breast cancer treatment.
"They think, 'It couldn't possibly
•
be this bad.' There are people who
won't read the book, but my crowd
\ believes that the more you know, the
more you are prepared," Stabiner
said. She welcomes the opportunity
to address an audience of interested
women; she will assure them they can
make a difference.
C
-
Women are
using battle
\_ terms in the
,1 breast cancer
fight.
Stabiner, a free-lance journalist,
has written a compelling story that
chronicles the national breast cancer
campaign that first began in 1991.
\- She is delighted that proceeds from
the Oct. 20 event, sponsored by the
DMC, Sinai Guild and The Jewish
News, are earmarked for an advanced
ultrasound machine for core biopsies
\-jto be located at the Cis and Emanuel
N. Maisel Women's Health Center in
West Bloomfield.
"This is a fine opportunity for
•
women to work in their own behalf,"
she says.
Reading Stabiner's 518-page work
is not difficult. The case histories of
seven breast cancer patients create
suspense as each round of treatment
offers new hope. The book also
includes a large section on Dr. Susan
Love, founder of the UCLA breast
program. Love emerges as controver-
sial, outspoken and desperate.
Determined to eradicate cancer, she
rails against the traditional treat-
ments, which she wryly describes as
"slash, burn and poison," but she
offers no alternative treatments. Her
frustration is palpable.
To add to the breast cancer dilem-
ma, Stabiner reveals in her book what
has occurred since Fran Visco, a
lawyer and breast cancer survivor,
joined Love to form the National
Breast Cancer Coalition. They
marched off to Washington, deter-
mined to gain funding for intensive
research. They were armed with
unsettling statistics: in 1993, 1.6 mil-
lion women had breast cancer and
probably 1 million more cases were
undiagnosed. Ironically, if not poeti-
cally, Congress responded with $210
million from the Department of
Defense budget, and millions more
have followed each year.
Even these allocations have been
controversial. Universities, hospitals
and drug companies in the United
States and abroad are also involved in
extensive, costly studies. Sharing
data, vying for recognition and com-
peting for grants compounds and
confuses breast care issues, Stabiner
writes. And for Jewish women, there
is one more complication: The dis-
covery that two genes, BRCA1 and
BRCA2, are relatively common in
Ashkenazi Jewish populations, affect-
ing as many as 1 in 50 women. Once
again, is it better to know or not to
know, and what happens if your
employer or health care provider
wants to know?
Stabiner's research also includes
interviews with surgeons, activists,
endocrinologists, geneticists, nurses,
fund-raisers and congressional lead-
ers. Her book is a "who's who" in the
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Karen Stabiner: An activist.
world of breast cancer. She explores
topics that include hormone replace-
ment therapy, insurance coverage,
experimental treatments, gene thera-
py and nutrition.
Stabiner fervently believes that it's
important for women to become
knowledgeable about where research
and treatment is today. She is grateful
that her book, published last April,
has received fine reviews in the New
York Times and the New Yorker.
Stabiner will encourage her audi-
ence to become politically active. "I
am a dues-paying member of the
National Breast Cancer Coalition,"
she says with pride. "We can't hide in
a corner and hope that this disease
will go away. I know there are many
who don't want to read my book, but
I have also found many of my most
enthusiastic readers are women who
have had the disease and no longer
feel so alone." ❑
For tickets to the Women in
Philanthropy luncheon, call the
Sinai Development Office at
(313) 493-6205 or the Sinai
Hospital Guild Office at (313)
493-5300. Tickets are $36.
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