scribepub's review against another edition
Only Graeber, one of America’s greatest non-fiction writers, could take a subject so complex, dense and sprawling and turn it into a rollicking high-tension medical thriller. Masterful.
Douglas Rogers, award-winning journalist and author of The Last Resort
A gripping chronicle of the 100-year overnight success of immunotherapy. For myself and millions of other cancer survivors, The Breakthrough is a book of immense and essential hope.
Michael Fitzgerald, co-founder and CEO of Submittable, and author of Radiant Days
There is no villain more ruthless than cancer, which has robbed us all of loved ones who had to endure untold suffering before they succumbed. But after decades of frustration and toil, scientists finally understand how to vanquish the disease by activating the human body's natural defences. The intimate stories behind this triumph lie at the heart of Charles Graeber’s The Breakthrough, an expertly crafted and exhilarating account of life-saving ingenuity at its most dazzling. You will never encounter another book so incisive about the art of medical sleuthing, or so poetic about our innate drive to hold on to all that's beautiful in this world for as long as we can.
Brendan I. Koerner, Wired contributing editor and author of The Skies Belong to Us
Lucid and informed … Graeber gives readers a basis for both understanding the challenges involved and for cautious optimism that a cure can be found.
Publishers Weekly
Graeber concisely reviews the science of cancer … The risks of tinkering with an intricate immune system are obviously high, even perilous. But the potential reward is a cure. Exciting reading.
Booklist
Imagine a vaccine that could cure cancer. As this book reports, that possibility may not be far off … [T]he book offers hope for more effective treatments in the near future. A readable survey of the emerging field of immunotherapy in cancer treatment.
Kirkus
In Mr Graeber’s hands, the evolution of immuno-oncology is both captivating and heartbreaking.
The Wall Street Journal
Graeber’s writing is swift and clear, as if he can barely contain his enthusiasm for the subject — and, in fact, he can’t contain it ... One or two chapters are weighted down by talk of cell division and the like but, for the most part, Graeber paints vivid portraits of people who have cancer or are trying to conquer it ... a rare and thrilling thing: a hopeful, even inspiring, book about cancer.
Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The extraordinary story of how medical research may finally have made the ultimate breakthrough – a cure for cancer.
Sydney Morning Herald, Bianca Nogrady
The new book by Charles Graeber, The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer, artfully traces the history of old and new developments that may have — finally — resulted in an actual cure for the most dreaded of all diseases.
Mimi Swartz, The New York Times
Fascinating and engaging … Written with the verve and tension of a medical thriller, Graeber vividly brings to life the scientists and physicians on the front-line battle with cancer and details in simple terms their efforts and breakthroughs.
Canberra Weekly
The Breakthrough not only provides good background and good understanding for patients, but is also a wonderful read, a book easily picked up but not easily put down — I'd recommend it for any patient interested in immunology of cancer.
Dr. James L. Gulley M.D. Ph.D., Director of Medical Oncology, Cheif of Immunology, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Crisp and suspenseful ... an inspiring medical narrative.
BBC
Graeber does it again. He takes a complex topic — this time advances in cancer treatment — and weaves an engaging narrative that engages you to the end. With cancer as a leading cause of illness and death, this book is a timely and important account of the challenges and possibilities for new horizons in cancer treatment.
Diana J. Mason, PhD, Senior Policy Service Professor (George Washington University School of Nursing), Professor Emerita (Hunter College, City University of New York)
[A] deft, detailed study of cancer immunotherapy ... From the once-discredited pioneer William Coley to immunologist and Nobel laureate James P. Allison, they form a brilliant, driven, admirably stubborn group that Graeber brings vividly to life.
Nature
Fascinating ... [Graeber] weaves human stories with accounts of scientific progress, looking beyond the “cut, burn, and poison techniques” — surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — to focus on the myriad ways the immune system can attack cancer, and provides hope that a cure might not be beyond imagination.
The National Book Review
The Breakthrough, reads like a crime thriller because that's what it is – the true story of a dedicated, persistent group of doctors and scientists stalking a killer: cancer … Brilliant.
Australian Financial Review
An entertaining and moving portrait of [Charles Graeber’s] trade ... As skilled a wordsmith as a surgeon.
Robin Osborne, GPSpeak
Douglas Rogers, award-winning journalist and author of The Last Resort
A gripping chronicle of the 100-year overnight success of immunotherapy. For myself and millions of other cancer survivors, The Breakthrough is a book of immense and essential hope.
Michael Fitzgerald, co-founder and CEO of Submittable, and author of Radiant Days
There is no villain more ruthless than cancer, which has robbed us all of loved ones who had to endure untold suffering before they succumbed. But after decades of frustration and toil, scientists finally understand how to vanquish the disease by activating the human body's natural defences. The intimate stories behind this triumph lie at the heart of Charles Graeber’s The Breakthrough, an expertly crafted and exhilarating account of life-saving ingenuity at its most dazzling. You will never encounter another book so incisive about the art of medical sleuthing, or so poetic about our innate drive to hold on to all that's beautiful in this world for as long as we can.
Brendan I. Koerner, Wired contributing editor and author of The Skies Belong to Us
Lucid and informed … Graeber gives readers a basis for both understanding the challenges involved and for cautious optimism that a cure can be found.
Publishers Weekly
Graeber concisely reviews the science of cancer … The risks of tinkering with an intricate immune system are obviously high, even perilous. But the potential reward is a cure. Exciting reading.
Booklist
Imagine a vaccine that could cure cancer. As this book reports, that possibility may not be far off … [T]he book offers hope for more effective treatments in the near future. A readable survey of the emerging field of immunotherapy in cancer treatment.
Kirkus
In Mr Graeber’s hands, the evolution of immuno-oncology is both captivating and heartbreaking.
The Wall Street Journal
Graeber’s writing is swift and clear, as if he can barely contain his enthusiasm for the subject — and, in fact, he can’t contain it ... One or two chapters are weighted down by talk of cell division and the like but, for the most part, Graeber paints vivid portraits of people who have cancer or are trying to conquer it ... a rare and thrilling thing: a hopeful, even inspiring, book about cancer.
Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The extraordinary story of how medical research may finally have made the ultimate breakthrough – a cure for cancer.
Sydney Morning Herald, Bianca Nogrady
The new book by Charles Graeber, The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer, artfully traces the history of old and new developments that may have — finally — resulted in an actual cure for the most dreaded of all diseases.
Mimi Swartz, The New York Times
Fascinating and engaging … Written with the verve and tension of a medical thriller, Graeber vividly brings to life the scientists and physicians on the front-line battle with cancer and details in simple terms their efforts and breakthroughs.
Canberra Weekly
The Breakthrough not only provides good background and good understanding for patients, but is also a wonderful read, a book easily picked up but not easily put down — I'd recommend it for any patient interested in immunology of cancer.
Dr. James L. Gulley M.D. Ph.D., Director of Medical Oncology, Cheif of Immunology, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Crisp and suspenseful ... an inspiring medical narrative.
BBC
Graeber does it again. He takes a complex topic — this time advances in cancer treatment — and weaves an engaging narrative that engages you to the end. With cancer as a leading cause of illness and death, this book is a timely and important account of the challenges and possibilities for new horizons in cancer treatment.
Diana J. Mason, PhD, Senior Policy Service Professor (George Washington University School of Nursing), Professor Emerita (Hunter College, City University of New York)
[A] deft, detailed study of cancer immunotherapy ... From the once-discredited pioneer William Coley to immunologist and Nobel laureate James P. Allison, they form a brilliant, driven, admirably stubborn group that Graeber brings vividly to life.
Nature
Fascinating ... [Graeber] weaves human stories with accounts of scientific progress, looking beyond the “cut, burn, and poison techniques” — surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — to focus on the myriad ways the immune system can attack cancer, and provides hope that a cure might not be beyond imagination.
The National Book Review
The Breakthrough, reads like a crime thriller because that's what it is – the true story of a dedicated, persistent group of doctors and scientists stalking a killer: cancer … Brilliant.
Australian Financial Review
An entertaining and moving portrait of [Charles Graeber’s] trade ... As skilled a wordsmith as a surgeon.
Robin Osborne, GPSpeak
johannaluec's review against another edition
4.0
Three main aspects I took from this book:
- Immunotherapies live at the intersection of a) the tumor and b) the immune system, it all comes down to either the gas pedal or the brake which eventually overrules and takes over the steering wheel in the T cell response
- The cut-burn-poison approach does not suffice anymore in many cases
- Solid tumors are the nastiest creature on earth and do not deserve to be that smart
I appreciated the insights into CAR-T cell therapy and the history about the main scientific contributors in that field. Checkpoint inhibitors are very promising!
- Immunotherapies live at the intersection of a) the tumor and b) the immune system, it all comes down to either the gas pedal or the brake which eventually overrules and takes over the steering wheel in the T cell response
- The cut-burn-poison approach does not suffice anymore in many cases
- Solid tumors are the nastiest creature on earth and do not deserve to be that smart
I appreciated the insights into CAR-T cell therapy and the history about the main scientific contributors in that field. Checkpoint inhibitors are very promising!
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
4.0
I was fully prepared not to like this book, but that's because (as I discovered) I'm kind of a snob and a jerk, not because there was anything wrong with the book itself.
I had noticed that the author, Charles Graeber, had risen to fame after writing a book about a nurse who killed hundreds of patients. I assumed this meant that the book was sensationalized, and that this book might suffer the same problem. I had no evidence for this, of course, and what I found upon reading 'The Breakthrough' is that Graeber did a great deal of detailed and difficult research -- I had the sense that he left out a great deal more than he put in, to prevent the story from bogging down. That's an admirable trait.
The problem of fighting cancer with one's own immune system is quite complicated, and Graeber chose to address this by focusing on the main problems and not getting bogged down in every single experiment being run around the world. (I was disappointed in Siddhartha Mukharjee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning 'The Emperor of Maladies,' precisely because it seemed that everything ever learned found its way into his long, long, and repetitive book.) For each major hurdle along the way, Graeber introduces a researcher and a patient, and tells their stories in enough detail to follow the overall progress as well as illustrating its importance.
The biology involved is fiendishly complicated, and so it required to fifty years of sustained effort to arrive at our latest and best weapon in the fight against cancer, which are the CAR-T drugs. Initial results do indeed seem to show that, for many patients, at least, these drugs *cure cancer,* which has never really been a realistic goal in the past.
My only complaint with the book is that the final chapter, in which all the different threads come together with the advent of CAR-T therapy, feels rushed and incomplete. Indeed, the information is so new and so rapidly evolving that we could not expect a fully fleshed-out report, but it seems oddly lacking in detail compared to the rest of the book.
Nice job, Mr. Graeber!
I had noticed that the author, Charles Graeber, had risen to fame after writing a book about a nurse who killed hundreds of patients. I assumed this meant that the book was sensationalized, and that this book might suffer the same problem. I had no evidence for this, of course, and what I found upon reading 'The Breakthrough' is that Graeber did a great deal of detailed and difficult research -- I had the sense that he left out a great deal more than he put in, to prevent the story from bogging down. That's an admirable trait.
The problem of fighting cancer with one's own immune system is quite complicated, and Graeber chose to address this by focusing on the main problems and not getting bogged down in every single experiment being run around the world. (I was disappointed in Siddhartha Mukharjee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning 'The Emperor of Maladies,' precisely because it seemed that everything ever learned found its way into his long, long, and repetitive book.) For each major hurdle along the way, Graeber introduces a researcher and a patient, and tells their stories in enough detail to follow the overall progress as well as illustrating its importance.
The biology involved is fiendishly complicated, and so it required to fifty years of sustained effort to arrive at our latest and best weapon in the fight against cancer, which are the CAR-T drugs. Initial results do indeed seem to show that, for many patients, at least, these drugs *cure cancer,* which has never really been a realistic goal in the past.
My only complaint with the book is that the final chapter, in which all the different threads come together with the advent of CAR-T therapy, feels rushed and incomplete. Indeed, the information is so new and so rapidly evolving that we could not expect a fully fleshed-out report, but it seems oddly lacking in detail compared to the rest of the book.
Nice job, Mr. Graeber!
vandana's review against another edition
5.0
Really great overview of the history and main concepts. I found this very helpful. Thanks!
emmaparsnips's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this book - my PhD research is on CAR-T cell immunotherapy so it was great to learn more about the history and early discoveries in this field. However, I found the use of notes at the end of the book really annoying as I had to keep flipping to the back of the book. There were also numerous typos in the book - AstroZeneca? Finally, the final chapter mentioning religion so much was an interesting choice from the author and I'm not sure that it was the strongest conclusion.
teej24's review against another edition
5.0
Great book about emerging cancer medicines! Learned a lot about the immune system and cancer treatment. Exciting stuff.
samstillreading's review against another edition
5.0
There are a lot of exciting advances in medicine, but surely none are as exciting and game changing as cancer immunotherapy. (Perhaps I am a little biased though having seen these treatments in action). Immunotherapy is not chemotherapy, but utilises new research breakthroughs to help allow the immune system to see cancer as something foreign and fight it. Unfortunately, it won’t help every cancer (some look more like foreign monsters to the immune system, others look like something normal) but immunotherapy and future breakthroughs in the field are going to be talked about for a long time. This book is timely because cancer therapy is no longer cut, burn and poison (surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy). As I’ve heard one person tell another, ‘I’m not on chemotherapy, I’m on immunotherapy’. Soon they won’t even have to emphasise that word as immunotherapies are being used more and more in various cancers. It’s given life extending options to people with melanoma (a deadly form of skin cancer), kidney cancer and lung cancer. For some patients, questions have been more about if and when immunotherapy should be stopped rather than how long they are going to live. It is early days though and by no means is immunotherapy the cancer panacea for all cancers.
Charles Graeber mixes patient experiences with various cancers that have been changed by immunotherapy and detailing the history of immunotherapy from William Coley’s experiments with bacteria and sarcoma to the discovery of CTLA and PD-1/PD-L1. Like other ground-breaking research, cancer immunotherapy hasn’t always been the coolest kid on the block. Graeber explains in detail the many failures and tiny steps forward that occurred before the latest breakthrough. It makes for fascinating reading. He also explains how the immune system operates very well and simply. My knowledge on reading this book has become much more detailed and because of it, my interest in immunotherapy has skyrocketed. (Just ask anyone who has spoken to me recently– I’ve been talking about immunotherapy all week). If you don’t know anything about B cells and T cells, it might be worth a quick refresher via the internet before you jump in.
One of the problems with talking about a field that is moving forward in leaps and bounds is that further breakthroughs will occur during the writing. Most of the recent discussion in this book is about CTLA-4 and the drug that acts on it (ipilimumab). PD-1 and PD-L1 (nivolumab, pembrolizumab, durvalumab atezolizumab and avelumab) don’t get quite as much page time – maybe that should be the sequel?! CAR-T cells – or T cells engineered to target cancer cells also gets a nice summary too (important as this is going to be used more and more in Australia). But overall, this is a great book to whet your appetite for what’s happening in cancer therapies these days. It’s clearly written, has the human touch and explains the technology in a way the non-medical person can understand. Those in healthcare will find it just as interesting (plus there are many references to scientific papers to keep you very busy).
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Charles Graeber mixes patient experiences with various cancers that have been changed by immunotherapy and detailing the history of immunotherapy from William Coley’s experiments with bacteria and sarcoma to the discovery of CTLA and PD-1/PD-L1. Like other ground-breaking research, cancer immunotherapy hasn’t always been the coolest kid on the block. Graeber explains in detail the many failures and tiny steps forward that occurred before the latest breakthrough. It makes for fascinating reading. He also explains how the immune system operates very well and simply. My knowledge on reading this book has become much more detailed and because of it, my interest in immunotherapy has skyrocketed. (Just ask anyone who has spoken to me recently– I’ve been talking about immunotherapy all week). If you don’t know anything about B cells and T cells, it might be worth a quick refresher via the internet before you jump in.
One of the problems with talking about a field that is moving forward in leaps and bounds is that further breakthroughs will occur during the writing. Most of the recent discussion in this book is about CTLA-4 and the drug that acts on it (ipilimumab). PD-1 and PD-L1 (nivolumab, pembrolizumab, durvalumab atezolizumab and avelumab) don’t get quite as much page time – maybe that should be the sequel?! CAR-T cells – or T cells engineered to target cancer cells also gets a nice summary too (important as this is going to be used more and more in Australia). But overall, this is a great book to whet your appetite for what’s happening in cancer therapies these days. It’s clearly written, has the human touch and explains the technology in a way the non-medical person can understand. Those in healthcare will find it just as interesting (plus there are many references to scientific papers to keep you very busy).
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com