Book excerpt: In MY CANCER YEAR, Curtis Pesmen, a veteran health journalist and book author, chronicles his successful fight with advanced colon cancer in a brutally honest and illuminating memoir. Through this moving account--which takes the reader through his initial shock of diagnosis, through treatment, experimental surgery and finally recovery--Pesmen's insights and experiences cast light on how to manage the challenges of cancer people don't like to talk about. This intimate memoir of a successful fight helps the fast-growing group of survivors--as well as family and friends--put cancer in its place while moving forward with the power of new knowledge.