According to Scott, I have too many books about cancer. Which is probably true. I think I own five, and have checked another ten or so out from the library at various times the last few months.
The Emperor of All Maladies, though, is different. Whereas the other books are all about how lifestyle and diet affects cancer, this one is a history of cancer. And I love books about medical history - my bookshelves are lined with books about the 1918 influenza pandemic, the natural history of the mosquito and mosquito-borne diseases, another about how medicine's impact on history (e.g., the role of typhus in Napoleon's unsuccessful Russian campaign), The Coming Plague, you get the idea. I learned about the book from another sarcoma patient, so the timing was related to my diagnosis, but I would have read this book at some point, no matter what my own situation.
The book is written by an oncologist, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, and grew out of a question asked of him by a patient regarding what exactly she was battling. Its 500 pages go through the history of cancer - from ancient texts and Galen's "black bile" theory through the rise and decline of the super radical mastectomy surgery, the identification of the connection between tobacco and lung cancer, and the ensuing battle to regulate big tobacco, the "discovery" of chemotherapy and the chemo trials of the 60s and 70s, the rise of palliative care, the identification of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, and finally, the rise of targeted therapies such as Gleevec, the revolutionary drug that turned chronic myeloid leukemia from a deadly, chemo-resistant disease, to a chronic disease that is managed by a single pill.
The book does express cautious optimism, but also warns against arrogance and complacency. I loved the way he wrote, and found it pleasant to read this 500 page, nonfiction history book. Others must have found it compelling, interesting, and educational as well - it won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction.
Not surprisingly, MPNST is not mentioned in the book. Sarcomas - especially GIST, which is now treated with Gleevec - do get a few mentions. So while it was close to home, it wasn't too close. (:
A worse choice was the movie 50/50, which I saw last week. I can't tell you if it was good or not - I maybe should have waited to see that one, at least until after the MRI results were in! Instead, I saw it on the evening before my appointment to learn about the results. I'm a crier in any movie, even, apparently, one starring Seth Rogen. The movie was billed as a "comedy cancer," with which I have no problem; in fact I like the idea. I just didn't find it very funny, which I think was due to the timing and my personal circumstances. The main character even had a cancer similar to mine, as far as I can tell - neurofibroma (benign tumor rising out of nerve sheath cells) sarcoma (tumor of the connective tissue) schwannoma (also relates to the cell type of the tumor - Schwann Cells. My tumor was called a schwannoma until they decided it was malignant, at which point they called it MPNST (I guess "malignant schwannoma" wasn't long enough)). Tumor location was different, of course.
My next movie will be the one about the birdwatchers (and yes, I've read the book that it's based on).
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