Siddartha Muhkerjee, Oncologist and Professor, needed to have a pet project to keep him sane during his residency. He chose to write a biography of cancer.
Written in a linear fashion, Muhkerjee takes us through the earliest discoveries and the earliest attempts to cure cancer to the present day. As we proceed through the timeline, the story takes frequent breaks to focus on a character or discovery or breakthrough before weaving back into the main plot. Sidney Farber and his folic acid antagonists on children diagnosed with ALL, Halsted and his compulsion to perform extreme mastectomies in hopes of ridding malignancies in breast cancer patients, Mary Lasker and her efforts to defeat cancer using her incredible fund-raising and political strengths--these characters allow their desire to emerge victorious to consume them, characteristic of the very malady itself.
I can appreciate how the author understands that I am not an Oncologist--drug combinations, surgery, even arcane dates in time are broken down into lay details and even repeated later on for benefit of the reader. These helpful explanations and clarifications do not take away from the momentum of the story. I found myself engaged as patients anxiously enrolled in experimental clinical trials in hopes of eventual remission, and I found myself cheerless when cancer fought back.
Muhkerjee has an exceptional talent for writing. This book is a treasure.
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