All cancer diagnoses are terrifying, but a melanoma diagnosis is both frightening and confusing. When Catherine M. Poole learned she had melanoma twenty-five years ago, she found that most of the literature on melanoma focused on prevention. To add to her understandable alarm, she couldn't find clear, concise information on treatment options. Poole wanted to be an informed patient, but she had no resources.
She survived melanoma and has become a dedicated activist for melanoma research and a staunch patient advocate. Her new book, updated in 2019, Melanoma: Not Just Skin Cancer, is a comprehensive guide to melanoma treatments with contributors melanoma expert Dr. Keith Flaherty and Dr. Jedd Wolchok, She tells her own survival story, as well as the stories of others. Since 2012, scientific advances have allowed even those with stage IV melanoma to survive and thrive. Poole wants every patient to find hope, but also clarity. Written for a lay audience, Melanoma: Not Just Skin Cancer explains the benefits of two primary but different melanoma treatments: targeted therapy and immunotherapy.
Poole understands every facet of melanoma treatment: new technologies, clinical trials, patient empowerment, and the intricate research connections between academia and the pharmaceutical industry. As a former patient, she knows melanoma patients want options. Options exist. Patients should understand them.
Newly updated 2019 to include newly approved therapies.
About the Author: Catherine M. Poole is a twenty-five-year melanoma survivor. She was diagnosed while pregnant with her son and quickly became an expert on melanoma and a patient advocate. She's a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and and a former editor at Rodale Press. A mother of two and grandmother of one, Poole is also the author of Choosing a Nurse-Midwife, published by John Wiley and Sons in 1994..
Yale University Press published her first book on melanoma, Melanoma Prevention, Detection, and Treatment, in 1998 and a revision in 2005. Her third book on the topic, Melanoma: Not Just Skin Cancer, is meant to serve as an alternative to the more common prevention-oriented literature with cutting edge reports on new treatments and procedures. Poole is the President and Founder of the Melanoma International Foundation a patient centered non-profit agency. She navigates patients and empowers them to get the best possible treatment.
