Cancer: A Very Short Introduction Paperback – Bargain Price, July 1, 2011 Author: Visit Amazon's Nick James Page | Language: English | ISBN:
B00C2HBPG2 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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About the Author
Nick James is Professor of Clinical Oncology at the University of Birmingham.
Books with free ebook downloads available Cancer: A Very Short Introduction Paperback – Bargain Price, July 1, 2011
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1st edition (July 1, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0199560234
- ASIN: B00C2HBPG2
- Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, the author correctly points out that:
- Mortality rates due to cancer vary around the world, but are generally quite high, especially in the developed world. Cancer is a HUGE problem.
- The ability to effectively treat cancer depends heavily on the type of cancer.
- Most results in cancer treatment have come from surgery and radiotherapy, and cancer drugs have been of limited benefit.
- The limited benefit of cancer drugs is partly due to their only working for a subset of patients (and we still are largely unable to identify those patients in advance), and the side effects of cancer drugs can shorten lifespan and lower quality of life. Moreover, when cancer drugs do 'work', the survival benefit is typically small (on the order of months) and only a small minority of responding patients see a large survival benefit (on the order of years).
- The cost of cancer treatment is huge and growing, and cancer drugs are a big part of that, despite their limited benefit.
On the negative side, there are three main areas where I think the book falls short:
- There are important modern areas of cancer research and treatment, such as epigenetics and metabolics, of which the author appears to be largely unaware.
- I think the author paints a bit too rosy a picture of progress being made with cancer treatment (though he does express reservations).
- The author is clearly uninformed and incorrectly pessimistic with regard to complementary/alternative medicine. While clinical trials in this area are lacking (but not entirely, and financial considerations are the main reason), the overall evidence in support of many of these CAM treatments is considerable.
This book provides a reasonably thorough introduction to an enormous topic. The development of cancer is described at a general level with examples and an introduction to oncogenetics; its treatment, again necessarily at a general level but explaining the main treatment methods and examining approaches for different cancers; ongoing areas of research and implicit problems in choosing priorities; and the size and economics of cancer's impact globally and in specific countries. James devotes a chapter to alternative and complementary medicine. James takes a fresh approach, is objective and, through the currency and extent of his expertise, is appropriately cynical about some disparities, even inequities, in the priorities and contradictions in the treatment of cancer in some jurisdictions. He drills down through statistics to identify important trends, some unexpected, across geographic regions, countries and cultures. His reporting of the evident importance of Vitamin D in cancer prevention may be worth the price of the book many times over. Contrary to the views of alternative medicine advocates, Vitamin C fares less well. Many pharmaceutical products are demystified.
Slight criticisms of this format would include the illegibility of some early tables which have been reduced in size and are now black and white. One can piece together some of what the tables are saying by crossing back to the supporting text a few times but, alas, that is not how supporting tables are meant to work.
I was expecting James, a representative of the medical establishment, to pay short shrift to alternative and complementary medicines.
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