“We might as well focus on prolonging life rather than eliminating death. This War on Cancer may best be ‘won’ by redefining victory.”
Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer Prize The Emperor of All Maladies was a companion to me during my husband’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. Taking the book with me to all of the appointments, I’ve used the receipts and after-appointment summary papers as a collection of bookmarks punctuating my slow progress through the book.
The subtitle A Biography of Cancer sums up the character of the book. It is a history of the discovery, description, classification, treatment, and character of cancer. Many significant people involved in this cancer story are described in detail (how they dressed, spoke, interacted with others) along with the unfolding of the cancer knowledge in a timeline fashion.
Notes:
- One part of the book calls out Health Net’s refusal to cover a treatment. This hits close to home since this is my insurance.
- Cisplatin, used in the 1950’s, hasn’t changed in usage. The only thing that has changed is that there are better anti-nausea drugs.
- I paid attention to the topic of gene mutations and tumor suppressor genes.
- The amount of research, time, and resources that has been spent on this disease points to the importance of the the scientific method in finding answers.
- “The story of one cancer’s genesis – of carcinogens causing mutations in internal genes, unleashing cascading pathways in cells that then cycle through mutation, selection, and survival – represents the most cogent outline we have of cancer’s birth.”
Fact-packed, this is a fascinating biography of a disease I never wanted to meet.
