Volume 195 - Issue 11
Fighting the good fight
Author: Robert J S Thomas
Med J Aust 2011; 195 (11): 719. || doi: 10.5694/mja11.10861
Published online: 12 December 2011
Published online: 12 December 2011
From Kurmond kid to cancer crusader. Pioneering integrated cancer treatment
. Fred Stephens. Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2011 (xiii + 177 pp, $29.95). ISBN 9781862549579.
The fascination of an autobiography persists. Can the reader gain insight into the riddle of life by peering into the experience of another? Troubles, tribulations, successes and joys are scattered seemingly randomly across the human journey.
So it is with Fred Stephens’ tale, a gentle, interesting story, almost naively presented in first person, extending from early childhood to an international career as a cancer surgeon.
Stephens’ life spans a period of extraordinary change in Australian life, and those of the appropriate age will find much to engage with. The younger generation, however, are unlikely to believe that such primitive mid 20th-century life ever existed.
The themes which pervade this recital have ongoing relevance to Australian life. Parochialism and nepotism have been a curse on this “lucky” country. The small number of tightly held and isolated medical communities, not excluding Sydney and Melbourne, encouraged dynasties and empire-building. Stephens’ tale accurately documents the impact of these elements on personalities and individual careers. Patients came first with Stephens, but patient-centred health care existed only as a dream.
The final acceptance of the concept of surgical oncology by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is one of the bright spots.
This book tells of a dedicated surgeon of independent mind doing well for his patients and the discipline of surgical oncology, but perhaps never receiving the recognition his achievements deserved. For those of us in the business and still fighting the good fight this is an enjoyable read, and well known characters pop up regularly through the pages. Fred Stephens was a pioneering spirit and his good heartedness and sometimes confronting personal honesty shines through the book.
Sovereignty and Survival: Understanding Lung Cancer Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia, a Case–Control Study
Alice R. T. Bergin, Luc te Marvelde, Roger L. Milne, Benjamin J. Solomon, Kris Ivanova, Peter Savas, Stephen J. Luen, Jay Hamann, Andrea Casey, Nicole Watt, Sue M. Evans, Gail Garvey, Sherene Loi
The Changing Indications for Adult Liver Transplantation in Australia: A Narrative Review
Fadak Mohammadi, Alan J. Wigg, Ken Liu, Simone I. Strasser
Uneven Ground: Survival Differences Among Victorian Lung Cancer Patients by Location of Residence (2011–2023): A Retrospective Cohort Study
Evangeline Samuel, Eldho Paul, Mike Lloyd, Sanuki Tissera, Craig Underhill, Sagun Parakh, Phillip Parente, Inger Olesen, Javier Torres, Katharine See, Gavin M. Wright, David Langton, Thomas John, Matthew Conron, James Bartlett, Nicola Atkin, Nikolajs Zeps, Susan V. Harden, Wasek Faisal, John R. Zalcberg, Rob G. Stirling
Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer With Liver-Only Metastases: A Retrospective Cohort Study Integrating Prospectively Collected Real-World Clinical and Molecular Data From an Australian National Database (2009–2024) to Guide Treatment Planning
Savio G. Barreto, Christos S. Karapetis, Shahid Ullah, Matthew Burge, Susan Caird, Angus Campbell, Azim Jalali, Ross Jennens, Muhammad A. Khattak, Belinda Lee, Stephanie H. Lim, Shehara Mendis, Louise Nott, Timothy J. Price, Jeremy D. Shapiro, Jeanne Tie, Javier Torres, Colin Williams, Rachel Wong, Vanessa Wong, Peter Gibbs
Australian Pathways for Specialist Pain Management and Early Palliative Care for People With Pancreatic Cancer: Developed Using a Community Consensus Approach
Jennifer Philip, Melanie R. Lovell, Kylee Bellingham, Gail Garvey, Gregory B. Crawford, Nicole M. Rankin, Kara Burns, Isabel Young, Vivienne Milch, Dorothy Keefe, Katrina Anderson, James Lawson, Meinir Krishnasamy
Program Guidelines for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program: Targeted Lung Cancer Screening in High-Risk Individuals in Australia
Nicole M. Rankin, Rebecca Zosel, Lisa J. Whop, Raglan Maddox, Annette McWilliams, Miranda Siemienowicz, Jon Emery, Maria A. R. Lantin, Georgia Bartlett, Mikayla Wolfe, Abbey Diaz, Katrina Anderson, Lillian Liu, Cindy Toms, Sarah McDermott, Peter Bligh, Jeremy Chalke, Stephen Melsom, Claire E. Nightingale, Alison Brown, Sam Pope, Julia Brotherton, Anne Fidler, Michel Itel, Mark Brooke, Diane M. Pascoe, Fraser Brims, Tracy L. Leong, Emily Stone, Dorothy Keefe, Vivienne Milch