The Book - The Emperor of all Maladies, A bio of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

One of my neighbors that just started medical school and knows I am dealing with cancer told me about a book they had to read in their first semester of med school. Brennan assured me that it was very well written and the layman would really understand it and it wasn't heavy laden with medical terms so he brought over the book two weeks ago and encouraged me to read it.

The book is so well written and identifies the key researchers into child leukemia, breast cancer, x-rays, anesthesia, surgical techniques, antibiotics, and synthetic drugs that turned into chemotherapy and now I am starting the section in the book discussing the first linear accelerator that was built at Stanford.

I know we are dealing with the seriousness of PCa but I have found this book to be so positive and uplifting of so many key individuals that dedicated their lives so we have the various treatments that we do. I am one page 160 out of 472 and confident that I will find the remainder of the book to be as fascinating as the first part.

I hope some of you may be inspired to buy the book or go to the library and get a copy and read it. The author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his great research and writing.

It has given me a nice detour of dealing with PCa and has given me strength to keep fighting the insidious disease based on the huge sacrifices of so many angels that are doctors, surgeons, radiologists, oncologists, chemical engineers, biologists, etc. that give us a chance to experience more life than we would have had.

I hope you will find this reading to be worth your time.

Bless you all in your fight with PCa

Devastated,
I have read it and agree, it is very well done. It is written for a non-expert and yet it is not a "how to deal with cancer" book. It is more of an interesting non-fiction work on the history of cancer. I do recommend it, even for a non-cancer patient. By the way, there is only a passing reference to prostate cancer in it.
SC

I read this book as well on the advice of a friend. Although it does not emphasize PCa, it provides an incredible insight into modern medicine (as well as the history of medicine), applied to cancer. It is literally a "biography" of cancer, from the most ancient records we have on the subject to recent advances. You get the feeling that you understand the "personality" of cancer, as well as a history on the war against it. I recommend it not only in providing perspective to someone with cancer, but to anyone that wants to understand the treatment of cancer in layman's terms. I felt it was well-edited as well, and was an easy read for such a complicated subject.

You are not concerned about the .01 psa are you. Or did you mean it is now 0.1 rather than < 0.1. I say this be cause 99.9 % of folks here would love and drool over a .01

Sounds like a good read, since it can be had for Kindle, will buy it for my Kindle Fire tonight

david

Here's a link to some formal book reviews of this work for those who are interested:

/library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/1262184/Reviews

(They're well written reviews. I used to write reviews like these all the time in my librarian days).

Thank you both...

I'll put that on my list also...Emperor is a few years old...

The thing about this book that impressed me is that despite the fact that it does not mention prostate cancer as much as many other cancers, it is so comprehensive that I feel that I understand prostate cancer much better by its treatment of cancer in general.