Cancer: Increasing Your Chances for Survival

Ably hosted by Walter Cronkite, and first appearing on Connecticut Public Television, this two-part program succeeds where so many educational videos fail: it begins at the beginning. Divided into 4 segments (Diagnosis and Empowerment; Treatment; Mind/Body Interventions; and Spirituality and Mortality), it starts with a description of what cancer is, and offers sensible, easy-to-follow advice on finding a second opinion, the right doctor, the proper treatment center, and an emotional support group. The second section plainly discusses various conventional, alternative, and supplemental treatments. More time should have been spent on the conventional treatments: here, radiation and chemotherapy are given roughly the same attention as chronotherapy (the science of the timing of treatments), and I suspect that most patients have many more fears and questions about radiation and chemo than mind/body and spirituality issues. Despite this (and, if I may quibble, the false note provided by the garish graphics and overblown music), this set is highly recommended for its down-to-earth information and breadth of coverage. Aud: P. (K. Glaser)