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A review by janey
The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Raza
3.0
This book reflects some very important thinking about the deficiencies in the way that cancer drug research is performed in this country and recommendations for a different protocol, and I totally buy what she says.
Unfortunately, it also is very detailed about the molecular mechanisms in a way that is difficult for the layman to follow. The more powerful statement is the simple one, the one she tells in stories about her patients. Here, too, though, it is sometimes hard to connect the human story with the point she is trying to illustrate.
Edit to add:
A couple of other points have been weighing on me since I wrote the above review. First, I think that she overlooks some rather remarkable strides in the treatment of breast cancer that have come about in the last 50 years or so, and which her colleague Siddartha Mukherjee wrote about in [b:The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer|7170627|The Emperor of All Maladies A Biography of Cancer|Siddhartha Mukherjee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1280771091l/7170627._SY75_.jpg|7580942]. But then, perhaps more problematic, she talks about the future of testing for cancer markers and repeatedly discusses the ideal of "one drop of blood" holding all the information necessary. That would be great but frankly every time she mentioned that kind of work, I couldn't help but wonder if she were referring to the now wholly discredited claims of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos (see [b:Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup|37976541|Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup|John Carreyrou|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556268702l/37976541._SX50_.jpg|59699437]). And then that illustrated another problem, which is that her citation method made it pretty much impossible for me to figure out whose work she was citing when she was talking about the innovative theories, so I couldn't reverse engineer to determine who sponsored the studies. I hope she is not chasing pipe dreams here, but the whole Theranos debacle made me wary of her predictions.
Unfortunately, it also is very detailed about the molecular mechanisms in a way that is difficult for the layman to follow. The more powerful statement is the simple one, the one she tells in stories about her patients. Here, too, though, it is sometimes hard to connect the human story with the point she is trying to illustrate.
Edit to add:
A couple of other points have been weighing on me since I wrote the above review. First, I think that she overlooks some rather remarkable strides in the treatment of breast cancer that have come about in the last 50 years or so, and which her colleague Siddartha Mukherjee wrote about in [b:The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer|7170627|The Emperor of All Maladies A Biography of Cancer|Siddhartha Mukherjee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1280771091l/7170627._SY75_.jpg|7580942]. But then, perhaps more problematic, she talks about the future of testing for cancer markers and repeatedly discusses the ideal of "one drop of blood" holding all the information necessary. That would be great but frankly every time she mentioned that kind of work, I couldn't help but wonder if she were referring to the now wholly discredited claims of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos (see [b:Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup|37976541|Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup|John Carreyrou|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556268702l/37976541._SX50_.jpg|59699437]). And then that illustrated another problem, which is that her citation method made it pretty much impossible for me to figure out whose work she was citing when she was talking about the innovative theories, so I couldn't reverse engineer to determine who sponsored the studies. I hope she is not chasing pipe dreams here, but the whole Theranos debacle made me wary of her predictions.