Improved cancer treatment and survival rates have resulted in a growing number of cancer survivors who live years, and even decades, after their cancer diagnosis. Insights into what the experience of cancer survivorship looks like and how it can be navigated are much sought after by cancer survivors and their families, loved ones, and communities as they chart this unfamiliar and often lonely territory. Approximately 53% of cancer patients are diagnosed when 65 years or older, yet no attempt to explore the experience of older cancer survivors has been made. Dr. Alice. Kornblith, an esteemed social psychologist with extensive experience working with cancer patients, aims to address this need in Older Survivors of Cancer: Feeling Understood by Sharing Experiences. This thoughtful, respectful book seeks to reduce older cancer patients' and survivors' feeling of aloneness and of not being understood by sharing narratives of other older cancer survivors' experiences. Narratives were gathered specifically for this book and relate experiences across different cancer diagnostic groups, phases of cancer and gender. Throughout, the reader learns how cancer affected their lives-physically, psychologically, spiritually, and socially--during each phase of their cancer journey. Commentary by Dr. Kornblith provides context and lessons learned from the narratives.

About the Author
Alice B. Kornblith, PhD is a Social Psychologist whose area of interest over the past 20 years has been the quality of life of cancer patients with a special focus on the older patient. Much of her career involved examining cancer patients' quality of life while on clinical (treatment) trials. More recently, she has turned her attention to listening to older cancer patients' own words concerning the impact of cancer on their lives.

Reviews
"Older Survivors of Cancer: Feeling Understood by Sharing Experiences is an important book in that it addresses the issues that older people face as they move forward from a diagnosis of cancer. All too often the struggles that people over 65 years of age deal with are dismissed and overlooked. This book also speaks to the vital concerns of minority and underserved populations of cancer survivors whose voices all too often go unheard. The power of sharing the stories of older cancer survivors provides solace from the aloneness and lack of understanding that can be the experience of older survivors of cancer." --Cheryl Krauter, MFT, Author of Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Telling Your Cancer Story and Psychosocial Care of Cancer Survivors: A Clinician's Guide and Workbook for Providing Wholehearted Care



Book Information
ISBN 9780190902032
Author Alice B. Kornblith
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 137mm * 206mm * 20mm