Mukherjee - The Emperor of All Maladies

[AlanMeyer]

For those who haven't seen it, the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S. made a fine video of Siddhartha's very fine book, _The Emperor of All Maladies_. I read the book and watched the video and thought both were very worthwhile. Mukherjee, himself an oncologist, relates the history of cancer treatment, including the first surgeries, the first attempts to explain the cause of the disease, the use of radiation, chemotherapy, "targeted therapy" and so on.

Neither the book nor the movie is too technical for a popular audience to understand. I recommend it to everyone, but I particularly recommend it for those who might be attracted to the view that medical oncology today is just a collection of money making scams.

Here is a link to Episode 1 on YouTube. There are three episodes in total.

youtube.com/watch?v=rJYFE0V...(Not working as expected?)

I found the book in my local public library and I expect that most public libraries will have copies.

Alan

[AlanMeyer]

Curiously, in my post I included the URL (i.e., the http link) to the video. However the HealthUnlocked and YouTube programmers were smart. The HealthUnlocked program must have parsed the URL, saw that it was to YouTube, and embedded a YouTube play widget in my posting so people could see the video without having to go to the YouTube website.

Very cool.

Alan

[Hidden in reply to AlanMeyer]

I am quite surprised to see this episode as well as the others posted to YouTube, and it has been there a while. I (also) think it is a good history lesson showing how our ideas about cancer have changed and circled closer.

[pjoshea13]

Alan,

I'm reading his Gene book at the moment:

amazon.com/Gene-Intimate-Hi...

Excellent - apart from the bad puns. Mendel's abbot did not approve of his mouse breeding experiments, but was willing to give peas a chance.

Oh, well.

-Patrick

[AlanMeyer in reply to pjoshea13]

I'll have to read the Gene book. Thanks.

[Lakefisher]

It's a very good book. I think every cancer patient should read it.