Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

El emperador de todos los males: Una biografía del cáncer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

24 reviews

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Violence, and War

murderousscottishgremlin's review against another edition

informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

I found this to be quite a comprehensive history of cancer and cancer medicine/research for the layperson. It taught me a lot of things that came up in some clinical settings I was in. Wish the font size was bigger.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer

amyreh's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Homophobia and Infertility

readingrainbowroad's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Great book as always. Loved hearing some classic tales from my microbio and genetics classes and learning a few more!
Also some amazing and scathing deep dives into the history of surgical treatments of cancer and the tobacco industry.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Medical content

rhubarbpi3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

This was such a good book! So informative, tho I felt it dragged a tad in the final quarter and I wish it had focused a bit more on the historical part because I found that fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gore, and Terminal illness

angievansprang's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I’m not usually too into nonfiction, but apparently as a science/medicine nerd, this worked perfect for me. Mukherjee has a way of weaving a vivid timeline of cancer through many smaller, narrative stories that leave you caring for each “character”, though most of them were assuredly real people. I loved how this book explored the political & legal movements that were sidelining the scientific battle against cancer. A lot of these occurrences were not things I was previously aware of or taught in school. A very interesting read, especially if you are a science and/or medicine nerd like me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood

vmjanek's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, and Death

kabelon97's review against another edition

hopeful informative slow-paced

5.0

One of my favourite books ever. I really enjoyed how it chronologically tracks our understanding of cancer, from Imhotep to german suppuration of the blood to our current understanding of somatic genetic mutation causing cancer. It was also fascinating learning about radical mastectomy and its perverse grip on breast cancer surgery and how the feminist movement helps push scientists to finding evidence for radical mastectomy's ineffectiveness. Also, learning about Sidney Farber and his importance in the leukemia and general cancer landscape. This book is long but near perfect. Would recommend to everyone! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer

dmturner's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

5.0

"Cancer is a flaw in our growth, but this flaw is deeply entrenched in ourselves. We can rid ourselves of cancer, then, onlly as much as we can rid ourselves of the processes in our physiology that depend on growth - aging, regeneration, healing, reproduction." (462)

A thorough and very readable history of cancer and its treatment through history, from the viewpoint of surgery, chemotherapy, and cell biology. It is also incidentally an enlightening analysis of the institutional and structural problems in science that can interfere with treatment. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer and Death

snowleopard4's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness