Product Overview
America's Best Cancer Doctors Share Their Most Powerful Stories
Cancer is the loneliest disease. Diagnosis often comes out of the blue, and carries, for all the progress of the last decades, a burden of uncertainty, isolation and even hopelessness for patients and family members. Not so long ago, the mere mention of cancer struck such fear in patients that oncologists were taught to avoid it, substituting less threatening medical terminology-- neoplasm, mitotic lesion--when discussing diagnoses and treatment. Among themselves, they used phrases like The Big C and The Big Casino, which suggested the terrible odds and outcomes associated with the Emperor of All Maladies. Patients either assigned their doctors godlike powers or feared them as harbingers of terrible news. Rarely were oncologists considered human beings with feelings and families who struggled, and yes, suffered along with them, and were, in no way immune to cancer's ravages. Cancer is also the most private of diseases. Of necessity, too many stories of courage, strength, humility and compassion... enduring friendships, triumphs and life-changing experiences went untold, as did any suggestion that cancer doctors had lives and yes, intensely personal feelings behind the veil of professional demeanor. The best way to dispel these shadows is to connect today's cancer patient personally to the leading oncologists and researchers in the field, and to the thousands and thousands of patients who've come before. In effect, to put a human face and a human heart on this most feared of maladies.
On these pages, many of the world's top oncologists and researchers share for the first time their most memorable stories and experiences: lessons drawn from the patients they've been privileged to know, the mentors they've had, the personal histories that put them on the path to a career both endlessly challenging and rewarding. Much has changed in the last decades. We've seen breakthroughs in understanding, treating, and curing this dread affliction. The odds in the Big Casino are changing dramatically--in the patients' favor.
