In case you’re wondering what to do with that Barnes & Noble gift card, look no further than The Emperor of All Maladies ($30.00, retail; $15.57, Amazon.com).  Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D. Ph.D., a former Rhodes Scholar and current physician and researcher at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of Columbia University, tackles not only the intimidating beast of cancer, but also its immense three millennia-spanning history and monolithic influence on societies and individuals alike.
Yet, unlike many historical medical documentaries, Dr. Mukherjee’s tale is neither droning nor patronizing to its audience. Â Rather, Dr. Mukherjee cleverly utilizes cancer as the protagonist in his story, humanizing the disease and its researchers. Â Mukherjee elaborates on cancer’s daunting biological complexities and the frustrating journey in obtaining government funding and support (one humorous tale tells of a publisher in the 1950s refusing to use the words “breast” or “cancer” in a particular editorial). Â Yet most interesting of all to me as a medical student was Mukherjee’s “raised eyebrow” approach as he tells of the different interests of molecular biologists and oncologists, of surgeons and chemotherapists, of patient forcefulness against aggressive chemotherapy regimens and their own best interest in the long-term.
Mukherjee does an excellent job of entertaining laymen and clinicians alike in his writings; after all, cancer is not only a story comprised of the physiological mechanisms, paternalism, and ingenuities of medicine, but also the passion, suffering, and resilience which embodies the height of the universal human spirit. Â Mukherjee’s erudite yet relaxed style, playing out as a tale rather than an endless tome of facts, makes this a must-have for any scientist, researcher, clinician, as well as anyone with an interest in cancer.
On a personal note, my mother (and best friend) was diagnosed with bladder cancer a year ago, and my grandmother died of breast and bone cancer when I was nine years old, so this book hits home. Â While my mother’s prognosis looks good, I am still grateful for researchers and clinicians like Mukherjee, who remind us of the fragility of life, that “queasy pivoting between defeatism and hope,” and to embrace each uneasy progress as each of us are, for better or worse, only completely, inevitably human.