Those of us who have watched friends, relatives, colleagues, battle cancer have some conception of how devastating it can be, mentally and physically. But no matter how empathetic we are, we, the watchers, the outsiders, will never understand what it must be like to have ones own body turn on itself in a rabid, mindless effort to grow and devour. It is a kind of betrayal, the bodies we've relied on for so long malfunctioning, glitching, killing. Though I don't imagine this biography of cancer will bring much solace to those who've already endured this disease, for the rest of us, it shines a penetrating light on an illness that, in spite of awareness walks, government promises, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on research, is doggedly determined to defy us, to destroy lives.
After a quick tracing of cancer through antiquity, Dr. Mukherjee devotes himself to sketching out the rise of modern cancer research. From Sidney Farber's experimental treatments in the 30s and 40s which lead to the creation of the Boston-area Jimmy Fund, to the genetics labs in California which are producing cutting-edge therapies designed to sever cancer's access to the resources it needs to proliferate through the body, the history of the disease, the painful successes and the monumental failures, is both thorough and engrossing, It's the other two strains to the narrative here, though, that give this piece heart. Firstly, Dr. Mukherjee openly and empathetically relates his experiences as a doctor treating cancer, the baffling remissions and the soul-crushing losses. The emotional toll of the day-to-day grind of doctors treating and patients fighting offers the reader a glimpse of the kind of mental strength necessary to bear up under the weight imposed by this harmful condition. Secondly, he sketches moving portraits of key figures in the fight against cancer, including their contributions and their blunders. It's fascinating to read their theories about cancer's origins and the best ways to stop it.
This is vivid and well-balanced work. A 500 page biography about cancer ought to be tedious and depressing. But Dr. Mukherjee has a better grasp of pacing than some authors of fiction, switching effortlessly between the hard science and the human story. Disappointingly the history of cancer research seemed far too America centric. Reading this, one would think that cancer research has never been conducted outside the United States. I can well imagine that the Second World War had a chilling effect on such work in Europe, and elsewhere, relative to the United States, but that was 65 years ago now. They haven't made a single breakthrough? Additionally, I would've liked to read a bit more about cancer's possible causes and the investigative efforts to divine them, but it may be that trying to cover all the contributers, from environmental factors to cellular senescence, would balloon this book out to mammoth proportions. In any event, the flaws only marginally mar the excellence here. (4/5 Stars)
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