On the Cancer Frontier: One Man, One Disease, and a Medical Revolution Download for free books On the Cancer Frontier: One Man, One Disease, and a Medical Revolution [Kindle Edition] from with Mediafire Link Download Link
In 1950, a diagnosis of cancer was all but a death sentence. Mortality rates only got worse, and as late as 1986, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine lamented: “We are losing the war against cancer.” Cancer is one of humankind’s oldest and most persistent enemies; it has been called the existential disease.
But we are now entering a new, and more positive, phase in this long campaign. While cancer has not been cured—and a cure may elude us for a long time yet—there has been a revolution in our understanding of its nature. Years of brilliant science have revealed how this individualistic disease seizes control of the foundations of life—our genes—and produces guerrilla cells that can attack and elude treatments. Armed with those insights, scientists have been developing more effective weapons and producing better outcomes for patients. Paul A. Marks, MD, has been a leader in these efforts to finally control this devastating disease.
Marks helped establish the strategy for the “war on cancer” in 1971 as a researcher and member of President Nixon’s cancer panel. As the president and chief executive officer for nineteen years at the world’s pre-eminent cancer hospital, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, he was instrumental in ending the years of futility. He also developed better therapies that promise a new era of cancer containment. Some cancers, like childhood leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, that were once deadly conditions, are now survivable—even curable. New steps in prevention and early diagnosis are giving patients even more hope. On the Cancer Frontier is Marks’ account of the transformation in our understanding of cancer and why there is growing optimism in our ability to stop it.
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This is a good overview book. It documents Marks' career and how it fit into the decades-long "war on cancer", with concurrent documentation on the history of the Sloan-Kettering cancer research medical center.
The reader will not learn of specific and cutting-edge cancer treatments or prospects therefore. There is some mention of certain regimens that hold promise along the last several decades, but the mention is largely to highlight how long, complex, and costly is the effort to discover and gain FDA approval for certain cancer treatments. All factors are daunting in every way.
There is mention of "progress" in the treatment of various cancers, delineated by multiple decades, so the reader does get a sense "cures" are possible. Pediatric cancer in particular has seen tremendous increases in five-year survival. The incidence of cigarette-related cancer is highlighted with candor and bold statistics.
Marks is effective in keeping himself "in the game" throughout his career and the book. He never observes from the sideline, despite his roles as an administrator or manager, rather than a clinician. He remains a highly-effective vanguard in all phases of the birth, growth, and success of Sloan-Kettering as a cutting-edge institution. Right up to the present, there's no "magic bullet" in the treatment of cancer or in creating a world-renowned entity. It's old-school, tremendously-hard, work and persistence and the ability to affect others in a progressive and futuristic way with a fixation on excellence.
Readers seeking a bird's-eye view of a career in science and the public good will enjoy the book. A scientific journal it isn't, nor does Marks intend as much. Hence, a title such as "A Life in the War on Cancer" might be more apt.
I actually feel like reaching out to Marks to compliment him as Sloan-Kettering treats my best friend for recurrent Lymphoma. Thank-you Dr. Marks!!
By Todd Windyhill
Too much about the man not enough about the disease.
I was hoping to learn more about cancer than the about the author.
By Peter Koutromanos