Archimedes’ Lever A collection of Ideas that could move the world

Review: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

My rating:
Read from May 04 to June 02, 2011

This is the story of Cancer over the last 100 years. It is an emotional roller coaster and harrowing story of accidents, dirty politics, fanciful thinking and perseverance. Mukherjee weaves the tale of scientific accomplishment with rich scientific research. Mukherjee does a fantastic job blending these hard sciences with the story of being human. At times heavy reading but overal a great read.

By the end of the book you realise that Oncology really is in the dark ages; we are only just starting to understand how cancer works. It wasn't until the 1980s that oncologists abandoned radical mastectomy's which cut out ribs, muscle, collar bones and anything in between leaving debilitated patients which had a no better survival rate than more conventional treatments. It is only in the last decade that gene targeted cancer therapy has emerged which is the first real cure for cancer. 24 others are in the works. Since the human genome project we are only just starting to understand that complexities of how cancer mutates and is activated by our own genetics. In the end, the future looks hopeful, but there is a long road yet to go.