The Truth in Small Doses : Why We're Losing the War on Cancer-And How to Win It

A provocative, eye-opening history of the war on cancer, The Truth in Small Doses asks why we are losing this essential fight and charts a path forward.

OVER THE PAST HALF CENTURY, deaths from heart disease, stroke, and so many other killers have fallen dramatically. But cancer continues to kill with abandon. In 2014, despite a four-decade "war" against the disease that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, more than 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and nearly six hundred thousand will die from it.

A decade ago, Clifton Leaf, a celebrated journalist and a cancer survivor himself, began to investigate why we had made such limited progress fighting this terrifying disease. The result is a gripping narrative that reveals why the public's immense investment in research has been badly misspent, why scientists seldom collaborate and share their data, why new drugs are so expensive yet routinely fail, and why our best hope for progress--brilliant young scientists-- are now abandoning the search for a cure. The Truth in Small Doses is that rare tale that will both outrage readers and inspire conversation and change.

Clifton Leaf is the Editor-in-Chief of Fortune, where he directs the editorial content and oversees the staff. Previously, he served as a guest editor for the New York Times op-ed page and Sunday Review, and was executive editor at both the Wall Street Journal's SmartMoney magazine and Fortune. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Truth in Small Doses: Why We're Losing the War on Cancer--and How to Win It, which was named by Newsweek as one of "The Best Books About Cancer," and which earned Cliff a Lifetime Achievement Award for cancer reporting from the European School of Oncology. A winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the NIHCM's Health Care Journalism Award, and a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, Cliff has received several leadership honors for his efforts in the cancer fight. A keynote speaker at more than three dozen scientific conferences around the world, he has presented testimony to the President's Cancer Panel three times and delivered "Grand Rounds" at the National Cancer Institute--the only journalist to have ever received the honor.