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

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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