of All Maladies
A friend recommended this book to me and I found it at the local library.
As I’ve probably mentioned before, I like ‘weird’ science.
I’m finding it quite fascinating. Cancer has for many years been shrouded in secrecy. There were no effective treatments until mid-20th century. This book looks at the historical record and attempts to bring light to a difficult disease.
Although there is medical language, the book is really focused on the lay person and I’m finding it quite readable.
During the mid 1950’s a search was begun for a methodology for treating cancer and medications were being developed but remissions were brief. Eventually individuals gained insight into how cancer worked and what might kill the cells that were multiplying out of control.
Since cancer medications are in effect poisons, there was reluctance to administer multiple medications. This sentence (amongst many!) caught my eye:
“It is the dose that makes a poison,” runs the old adage in medicine: all medicines were poisons in one form or another merely diluted to an appropriate dose. But chemotherapy was poison even in the correct dose.
I am grateful for the pioneers in cancer treatment research.