Every August since 2020, The Cancer Letter has asked a diverse panel of clinicians, basic scientists, early-career faculty, patient advocates, government officials, and regulators to tell us what they are reading.
I had fun reading and sharing some book reviews with The Cancer Letter previously, and I thought I would try again with a new installment (The Cancer Letter, Aug. 6, 2021).
E. Donnall Thomas, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer of bone marrow transplantation, liked to make the point that his life spanned the period of time from when physicians like his own father still made house calls in a horse and buggy, to when T-cells were genetically engineered to be used therapeutically.
Is 2022 the year of thrillers? Statistics? Thrillers about statistics?
One would get little quarrel with the hypothesis that the development of “targeted therapy” is one of the most substantial advances in cancer care and cancer research over the past 50 years.
Are Ibram X. Kendi, Charles Dickens, and Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse on your bookshelf, too?
Over the past year, I noticed several books written by giants in our field, people everyone knows, people I am honored to know personally. I was interested in what they wrote, and I thought their books would be of general interest to The Cancer Letter community.
A reading list is a glimpse into the soul of a community. A reading list is also a reflection of a time. And a projection of visions of the future.
THE DEATH OF CANCER After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable–and How We Can Get There. By Vincent T. DeVita, Jr. and Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn; Illustrated. 336 pp. Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. $28.00“The Emperor of All Maladies” was a history of oncology, and a good one. “The Death of Cancer” is a memoir of one of the greats of medical oncology. It is a history from someone who was there, making history.
