In a new book in October 2019, oncologist Azra Raza argues that we are pouring far too many resources into killing the last metastatic cell in cancer - including through "precision medicine," when we should be redoubling efforts to prevent cancer or detect and treat it early. She on the faculty of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as the Chan Soon-Shiong professor of medicine.
Her new book is "The First Cell: The Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last," and is published by Basic Books. Amazon here.
See her recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, here.
An extract about the book:
"We have lost the war on cancer. We spend $150 billion each year treating it, yet -- a few innovations notwithstanding -- a patient with cancer is as likely to die of it as one was fifty years ago. Most new drugs add mere months to one's life at agonizing physical and financial cost.
In The First Cell, Azra Raza offers a searing account of how both medicine and our society (mis)treats cancer, how we can do better, and why we must. A lyrical journey from hope to despair and back again, The First Cell explores cancer from every angle: medical, scientific, cultural, and personal."For another doctor skeptic about the overall total impact of the precision medicine war on the last metastatic cell, see Vinay Prasad at OHSU, here. His PubMed here.
Time Flies
I couldn't believe it's almost ten years since the 2010 publication of "The Emperor of All Maladies," by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a 22 hour audiobook or 608 page book I still haven't attacked. Just the same age is Daniel Carpenter's "Reputation and Power," about the FDA, weighing in at 856 pages.
