Curing Cancer : Solving One of the Greatest Medical Mysteries of Our Time - Hardcover

Waldholz, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684811251 ISBN 13: 9780684811253

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997

Synopsis

An award-winning science writer from the Wall Street Journal reports on current research into the causes of cancer, including dramatic recent genetic breakthroughs that offer new hope for a cure. 25,000 first printing.

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Reviews

This book is engrossing, affording a view of how science is done and how its outcomes affect real lives. The task of teasing out individual cancer genes from the 80,000 and more present in humans is daunting. Waldholz shows us how it is accomplished.... For those interested in the human side of science, Waldholz offers rich fare--up-close vignettes of several of the leaders in contemporary cancer research and how drive, ambition and ample brain power have propelled their research and our understanding of this complex disease.

A Wall Street Journal science reporter's colorful, people-centered account of the fierce competition among scientists to find the genetic causes of cancer. Waldholz (coauthor, with Jerry Bishop, of Genome, 1990) focuses on Bert Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University, who developed the tumor-suppressor theory of cancer that has become the foundation of cancer research today; Mary-Claire King, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, who proved the existence of a breast cancer gene on chromosome 17 in 1990, although she couldn't pinpoint its precise location; Francis Collins, a researcher at the University of Michigan, who joined forces with King in the hunt for the elusive gene; and Mark Skolnick, a Utah geneticist who found BRCA1, the breast cancer gene, in 1994. Through interviews with these and other scientists who worked with them or competed against them, Waldholz shows the pressure of the race to be first. He reveals these denizens of the labs to be fierce competitors, often skilled at manipulating people, keeping secrets, and working the press. His secondary story, one fraught with quite different emotions, concerns the women in ``Family 15,'' the raw material used by a group of scientists tracking down the breast cancer gene. Through them Waldholz explores the ethical problems created when scientists are able to tell a woman that she has the gene but physicians are unable to either prevent or cure the cancer. Despite his optimistic title, Waldholz makes clear that curing cancer remains ``a lengthy and risky enterprise.'' He also touches on the problems and possible conflict-of-interest issues posed by the burgeoning number of biotechnology companies that are exploiting university research. Vivid portrayals of the principal players combined with clear descriptions of the science involved. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684811251
• ISBN 13: 9780684811253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320