The Breast Views: The Breast Views Blog: Book Contribution Call

This email was sent to me my Liz Armstrong, dedicated cancer prevention hound. If you are a young woman in some stage of a cancer experience, and feel that your story should be shared, which of course it should, this may be the perfect opportunity.

Edited Book Contributions Sought
Working Title: Young Adult Women and Cancer

It is often stated that cancer is an illness of the middle aged and elderly, yet substantial numbers of young people are diagnosed with cancer and undergo treatments. Most will become cancer survivors.

Over the years, the incidence rate of cancer among young adults is increasing. The Canadian Cancer Society argues: ..[w]hen diagnosed with cancer, these individuals [young adults] have most of their potential years of life ahead of them, and so many either spend decades living with the effects (physical, reproductive, social, emotional and spiritual) of cancer diagnosis and treatment or have tragically shortened lives, with major repercussions on their families and on society in general" (Canadian Cancer Society 2005:1)

Nevertheless, cancer is a gendered illness. The incidence rate of cancer for young adult women is considerably higher than for young adult men. During the 1990s the incidence rate for young adult men between the ages of 20 and 44 was 63.5 per 100,000 while for young adult women, in the same age group, the rate was 102.6 per 100,000. Also the cancer mortality rate for young adult women is higher than for young adult men: 22.1 and 17.2 per 100,000 respectively.

The most common cancer for young adult women is breast cancer (34%). Other "common" cancers are cervical, thyroid and melanoma. A cancer diagnosis during the young adult years, when one's peers forge ahead on the road to independence can have a devastating social, psychological and physical impact. There are many issues, both short and long term, that young adult women may need to address. For example, they may struggle with body image, fertility, sexuality, financial and relationship issues, work, study and independency problems etc. Not all young adult women with cancer will survive and some will need palliative
care.

Up to this point, young adult women with cancer, compared to childhood cancer survivors and older adult cancer survivors, have been somewhat neglected in research and the literature. We feel it is important that the stories and experiences of young adult women with cancer are being told.

For this edited book collection, we are seeking manuscripts that discuss a broad range of experiences related to the cancer "journey," including what may cause cancer of young adult women between the ages of 20 and 40. The manuscripts could be a critical or theoretical assessment of diagnostic and treatment options or cancer care in general as well as individual experiences with social, psychological and physical issues related to cancer, its causes or its treatment. We invite quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research based manuscripts, personal stories of cancer survivors, philosophical and theoretical essays as well as poetry.

Please send your WORD manuscript of 6000 words or less, excluding tables and references, in hard copy before August 1, 2006 to:

Editor Baukje (Bo) Miedema (PhD),
Director of Research,
Dalhousie University Family Medicine Teaching Unit, Dr. Everett Chalmers
Regional Hospital, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5N5 Canada
E-mail: bo.miedema@rvh.nb.ca