Rose Kushner

Rose Kushner was a journalist, breast cancer advocate and author of Breast Cancer: A Personal History and an Investigative Report. She challenged the standard practice of a biopsy followed by a radical mastectomy performed in a single operation, without patient input. Credited with doing more for women with breast cancer than any other human being in the world, her advocacy transformed breast cancer care in the U.S., promoting informed patient decision-making and influencing laws requiring doctors to involve patients in treatment choices. As Kushner wrote in her book, "We women should be free, knowledgeable, and completely conscious when the time comes for a decision, so that we can make it for ourselves. Our lives are at stake, not a surgeon’s." Kushner also championed cancer research funding and insurance coverage for mammography.