The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

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Anonymous
Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
edited March 2015 in Recommend Your Resources

Hello, have just picked up this book at my public library and it looks really good. 

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/books/review/Weiner-t.html?pagewanted=1

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  • scuttlers
    scuttlers Member Posts: 1,658
    edited June 2011

    Excellent read!!!

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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited June 2011

    Keep us posted on how you like it.  Looks interesting.

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  • Megadotz
    Megadotz Member Posts: 302
    edited June 2011

    Hi,

    I've read it's very interesting.  The section on breast cancer made me appreciate how much the treatment focus has improved over the decades -- and how dug in some groups can be about "how it's always been done".

     A good read indeed.

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  • Elizabeth1889
    Elizabeth1889 Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2011

    I read this book also and liked it very much.  So glad not to have been a breast cancer patient during the days of the Halstead radical procedures or a chemo patient during the heavy duty period of the 1990's.  

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  • msmouse
    msmouse Member Posts: 60
    edited July 2011

    I read this book before my diagnosis; to learn more about all cancers because my dear sister had been diagosed with stage IIIc melanoma. What I learned from it had a really postive effect when I was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 months later. I found I understood the terminology, treatments options and effects of treatments so much better and was able to make better decisions.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Elizabeth, I bet they'll say that about us in a couple years' time :(

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  • NatsFan
    NatsFan Member Posts: 3,745
    edited July 2011

    It's a wonderful book.  If you're interested in cancer history, I would suggest also reading Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer, and History by James S. Olson. 

    Bathesheba's Breast

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0801869366/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

    It's a good companion read to the Emperor of All Maladies book because it focuses on just breast cancer.

    One interesting difference - the Emperor book is written by an oncologist, while Bathesheba's Breast is written by a cancer patient.  As you read both books, it becomes very apparent which is which.  While both cover much the same ground and give credit where credit is due, the Emperor book features many more stories about heroic researchers struggling against the odds.  Most patients are reduced to passive recipients and beneficiaries of cancer research.  Bathsheba's Breast features many more heroic women, many of whom had to battle the medical establishment to get the treatment they needed. 

    For instance, Bathesheba's Breast gives extensive coverage to the b/c pioneers such Rose Kushner and Shirley Temple Black who fought to stop the barbaric practice common until the 70's of doing the biopsy, doing the mx right then and there if the biopsy came back positive.  Those poor women went under not even knowing if they'd wake up with a breast or not!   Betty Ford is also given ample credit for what she did to bring b/c out of the closet and make it acceptable to talk about in polite company.  The Emperor book mentions patient advocates like that, but covers them only in passing compared to the coverage Bathesheba's Breast gives them. But on the other hand, I got a much better understanding of the science of cancer research from the Emperor book.

    They were both wonderful books and I can highly recommend both of them.  

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  • juliet62
    juliet62 Member Posts: 3,412
    edited July 2011

    thanks , wil put them on my list

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Thank you Natsfan !! Really glad you brought this book to my attention :)) Any other book recommendations, anyone, would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I could change the title of the thread to accommodate all books related to health issues. Any suggestions sisters ?

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  • dsj
    dsj Member Posts: 277
    edited July 2011

    I just finished this book and was about to post on it as well. This is a very interesting and very well written account of the history of our understanding of cancer as a disease. It goes back to the Greeks but focuses primarily on the late 19C and 20C. There are chapters about surgical interventions (e.g., radical mastectomy and cluster surgeries), radiation, chemotherapy (e.g., bone marrow transplants) and a detailed discussion of cancer genetics and targeted therapies. It deals with the politics of cancer research, and what cancer means in social/cultural as well as medical/scientific contexts. I wasn't sure I would be able to read it, but I ended up reading it all with pretty intense interest



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  • Lynn18
    Lynn18 Member Posts: 416
    edited July 2011

    I've just started reading "the Emperor of all Maladies".  So far I find it extremely fascinating and at the same time, terrifying.  I may have to read it a little at a time.    

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  • Aerial
    Aerial Member Posts: 194
    edited July 2011

    Both books mentioned sound fascinating and I'm very curious to read both of them.

    Like lynn, I figure I'll need to read them a little at a time.  I had my single, simple mastectomy just four weeks ago and can get overwhelmed with too much information, at times.

    Thanks girls!

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    This book is hard to read "a little at a time".  The author is a gifted writer, in my opinion, and the book is hard to put down.  It's a large book and I'm more than half way through it.  It is terrifying to read about those that came before us in the cancer fight but I'm already forming opinions about why the cancer wars have gone on so long unlike polio and aids.

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  • JudithON
    JudithON Member Posts: 3
    edited July 2011

    I saw an interview with the author of 'The Emperor of all Maladies' on public television the other day, and it's available online too.  http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?795338608001

    Or go to tvo.org -- Video -- Allan Gregg in Conversation -- and page down 

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  • heartnsoul76
    heartnsoul76 Member Posts: 1,648
    edited July 2011

    haha - I'm on the waiting list at my library. There are 47 people ahead of me! I'm sure it's expensive, but I don't want to wait for YEARS to read this!

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  • Lynn18
    Lynn18 Member Posts: 416
    edited July 2011

    I agree, nurse-ann, this book is hard to put down.  I just learned that the author won the Pulitzer prize?  I can see why.

    One image I can't get out of my mind is when he describes blood being drawn from a woman with leukemia as "watery, pale and dilute, a liquid that hardly resembled blood".  I think he truly illustrates how horrifying cancer is.  

    heartnsoul, it looks like the paperback version of this will be out next month, which will be more affordable.  I am reading the kindle version. 

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Lynn:

    Another difficult passage is the description of the early cancer wards - bars on the windows to keep patients from jumping to their death - that really stayed with me.

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  • heartnsoul76
    heartnsoul76 Member Posts: 1,648
    edited July 2011

    Lynn - I will definitely buy the paperback version then. I'm looking forward to it, but I can imagine how difficult parts of it will be to read.

    The last large hardcover book I bought was Stephen King's "Under the Dome".  That book was so ridiculously heavy, it hurt my hands to hold it.  We ended up buying the iPad version, too. "Emperor of All Maladies" is in the iPad store, but it's my son's iPad....Wink

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  • cycle-path
    cycle-path Member Posts: 1,502
    edited July 2011

    I saw a review of this book today and came over to alert people to it, and I see you are already alert! But those who are waiting for the book might be interested in this excellent and well-written review in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

    http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/7527040370/practicing-on-patients 

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    cycle-path:

    Thank you for posting the review.  I forgot about the Susan Sontag quote.  My husband and I were coming back from MD Anderson and reading it to him made me cry.

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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited July 2011

    On amazon.ca, the book is available in paperback early August for $15.

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  • pip57
    pip57 Member Posts: 12,401
    edited July 2011

    Just finished watching the interview.  Very though provoking. 

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    bump

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011

    Bought this book and read it shortly after I was diagnosed.  I also felt it made me feel more empowered and knowledgeable.  I felt I could discuss my diagnosis, treatments, etc more in depth with my doctors as well.     Read it a second time after all my surgeries were done.  Picked up many things that had more meaning to me the second time around.  Fascinating read.

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  • YramAL
    YramAL Member Posts: 1,651
    edited July 2011

    Thank you for these recommendations. I'm on the waiting list at the library for Emperor of all Maladies and I checked out Bathsheba's Breast. I started reading it last night, and one thing is for sure, I'm glad I didn't have breast cancer back in the 1600's-early 1900's!

    Mary 

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  • NatsFan
    NatsFan Member Posts: 3,745
    edited July 2011
    Mary - yes, I love the how Bathesheba's Breast describes the advice given to the physicians who were doing mx without anesthesia: Just ignore the patient's screams.  Yikes!! Surprised
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  • YramAL
    YramAL Member Posts: 1,651
    edited July 2011

    NatsFan-I can see why many women of that time just chose to die without "treatment".  The one woman's eyewitness account of her own mastectomy is just bone-chilling.

    Mary 

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  • suemed8749
    suemed8749 Member Posts: 1,151
    edited July 2011

    I remember watching the HBO miniseries about John Adams in 2008 when I was going through my surgeries. His daughter had bc, and I thought it would be interesting to see how they treated it. Well, the scene is still stuck in my mind - they tied her to the bed, put a stick in my mouth, and perfomed the mastectomy. The shot just showed her wide-open eyes and blood spattering her face.

    "Bone-chilling" indeed!

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  • otter
    otter Member Posts: 6,099
    edited July 2011

    bumping to the top so I'll see it and might remember to order it

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  • Octobergirl
    Octobergirl Member Posts: 334
    edited July 2011

    Sue, I recently ordered the John Adams series from Netflix and the portrayal his daughter's diagnosis and surgery for breast cancer made the deepest impression on me.  She was so brave and determined in the film. 

    I'm rereading The Emperor of All Maladies. Heard the NPR interview and ordered it for my Ipad with the Nook (Barnes & Noble) app. I don't remember the exact download price but was surprised it was so reasonable. I still prefer holding a book in my hands to read but knew Emperor is dense and would be more mobile on the Ipad.  I'll def look for Bathesheba's Breast at the library. Thanks so much for sharing info about it. 

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