100 Best Books of the 21st Century (New York Times)
The Emperor of Maladies (2010)
by Siddhartha Mukehjee
#84
I'm wrapping up the non-fiction portion of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (New York Times) list. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the fiction portion, since most of the books I haven't read from that part of the list are books I already know about and don't want to read. I'm busy enough with my day job these days that I don't feel compelled to read as much during my leisure time. I listened to the Audiobook version over a period of months. It's a 22 hour listen, and frankly, 22 hours of listening to the history of the treatment of cancer proved to be a bit of a slog.
The take-away is that curing cancer is incredibly complicated because cancer itself is incredibly complicated. Really, the history of cancer is the history of medicine itself. No disease has attracted more attention from scientists seeking a cure, and The Emperor of Maladies was written at the cusp of the modern period, where a decline in the cost of genetic sequencing of individuals has made "curing cancer" a realistic prospect for a small but growing cohort of sufferers. The major issue, as it turns out, is that each cancer is genetically different, and a cure requires sequencing the genetics of the cancer cells for a particular person.
Mukehjee does have lots to say about the causes of cancer, which can either be incredibly reassuring or the equivalent of a death sentence with no execution date. Genetics plays a huge role in who does or doesn't get cancer, as do environmental factors and personal choices, but it really isn't only one thing or the other. One fact I did take away is that family history is super important- if cancer runs in your family you are susceptible to it no matter how hard you try to stay away from risk factors, conversely, if no one in your immediate family has had cancer, you are more likely to get away with risky personal choices and environmental exposure.
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