2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
3. IN what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
1. I really see this image of immortality being expressed though this telling of Atossa’s journey through time. Cancer itself is immortal. So to is our fight. The way we look at cancer is always changing and they way we treat it will always evolve. The author brings up a good point when he says, “we can rid ourselves of cancer [] only as much as we can rid ourselves of the process in our physiology that depend on growth...” Cancer is a part of us. It is an aging disease, and the only way that we can understand it is to go on the journey with it. We may never find the cure, and we may never rid ourselves of this disease, but we can sure learn how to prolong the life of those that are ailed by it. Cancer ability to sustain the life cycle of a cell is just as immortal as our passion to understand it and in some way coexist.
ReplyDelete2. Cancer is in itself a great story to be told. It’s well known by many, and has been around for a long time. There are many ways that its story can be told. The public forum can tell the story of its biology; the individuals experience can tell you a story of intimate detail on how it’s affected their lives as well as their loved ones. The fact that cancer has a name given to it so many years ago by Hippocrates shows that it has a story and life force to great not to be told. There are other diseases that deserve a biography too, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Here is a disease that affect so many too. There are stories to be told about this disease and the impact is great for those affected by it, patient and clinician alike.
3. The author talk about what the landscape of the future of cancer treatment will look like. There will always be those doctors that look back at what we have done and think how radical our chemical treatments were, and how little we understood about the disease itself. It’s what every generation does, looks back and forgets what it was like to be in the forefronts of discovery. “History repeats, but science reverberates.” That is an amazing phrase. It’s saying that much of the way we make discoveries will remain the same, and carry throughout the times. It’s worth it too take a look back and remember what is like to discover something new and how many things stay the same: “the relentlessness, the inventiveness, the resilience, the queasy pivoting between defeatism and hope, the hypnotic drive for universal solutions, the disappointment of defeat, the arrogance and the hubris.”
4. I do have optimism, because if there is any one thing from what the last question answered, there is always that human nature to hope and look for answers to the questions that drive us to do better, and help those that we can.
1.I think another great metaphor that can relate to the treatment of cancer through time would be to look at life itself. We all start out as a small being unaware of our world. We dont know much but we can make observations. Then we grow into a juvenile and we gain more knowledge so now we can actually identify what we are observing. Then we get a higher education which shows that we can actually formulate a possible treatment which may be radical considering we are still learning and progressing. And ultimately with age comes wisdom and now we are able to find the drugs that are able to put cancer at bay and help people live a longer life. Like I said, with age comes wisdom and that is exactly what we have seen throughout the ages of mankind when it comes to the treatment of cancer.
ReplyDelete2. A biography is an account of someone's life and this someone is cancer. I think he did a great job in writing a biography of cancer because he took cancer and gave it a beginning and demonstrated its path to the present day. Who knows what will come of cancer in the future. I think Alzheimer's and strokes deserves a biography in order to understand what needs to be done and what has been done in the fight against them.
3. "History repeats itself" in a sense that cancer will keep coming back generation after generation. How we deal with the issue is what makes the difference in its future. Whether that be in preventative care to stop the disease from ever forming or in therapy to cure the disease once someone has it.
4. This book has definitely shown the ups and downs in the history of cancer. This book has really done a great job in showing all the great accomplishments in the efforts to win the war on cancer. From all the advances so far, I know there are many more to come especially since technology only keeps getting better.
1. I think that his use of Queen Atossa was a great way to demonstrate the incredible progress that has been made within the field of cancer, from being able to characterize it to being able to treat it. I think the end of the book was great—I especially liked the realization that Carla Reed had gone into full remission, this ended the book on a positive note.
ReplyDelete2. A disease is in very many ways like a living being. It has a birth or beginning, it grows and develops throughout time, and many have deaths (these come about as we discover cures to the diseases). Biographies are written about individuals who have made great impacts to the world—disease also make impacts to the world, although these impacts are more bad than good, but their impacts should still be noted. There are many diseases for which biographies could be written—the great plague was one very notable disease that caused an enormous impact on the world.
3. Scientific research is based on experimentation. Experiments are achieved by testing a hypothesis and then building on that hypothesis. In order to have a successful experiment it takes many attempts—this means that we continuously return to the basic biology of cancer to attempt to identify its mechanisms and ways in which to stop it or treat it. It is essential to consider the past whenever developing novel ideas—the past often serves as an example of either what to do or what not to do.
4. This book definitely leaves me optimistic about the future of cancer research. In only a few years we have been able to identify the complete mechanism of most cancers and through this we have been able to develop treatments that are able to cure some cancers and force many others into remission. As science continues to advance, I am certain that we will be able to develop even more drugs and methods to treat all forms of cancer.
1. The author by creating this fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatments have changed over centuries was great. At the end of the book you get to see the immortality of cancer and how treatments have been developed to try to defeat the immortality of cancer. The treatments always aim to kill cancer but how can you kill something that is immortal, something that just won’t die. With the help of research we now know some of the mechanisms cancer uses to be immortal and there new treatments and therapies have are developed in trying to inhibit some of these mechanisms. Some of these immortal mechanisms depend on the same things we depend on for normal growth and function, which makes developing these new treatments hard because they have to kill the cancer cell as much as possible without killing the normal functioning cells. And this is how some of the treatments have actually changed over time; we went from trying to kill cancer to impeding the process instead. I think I would have ended the book in a similar way that Mukherjee does after all it is a biography of cancer and to end with how cancer treatments have changed over time was genius. Though I probably would not have thought to create a fictional character do so. Again, the image or metaphor that you get from the end of this book is immortality. Immortality because if cancer itself was changing, evolving and being immortal, and so the cancer treatments have had to change over the centuries to compensate for the cancer changing as well.
ReplyDelete2. I certainly think that a biography can be written of an illness; I just finished reading one ☺. The biography would give you detailed descriptions or accounts of the disease in peoples lives from the very beginning up until the end. The biography can also portray the experience of those people with the disease and that is exactly what The Emperor of all Maladies does. The Emperor of all Maladies presents various important highlights of cancer and cancer treatment (i.e. chemotherapeutic drugs) that make the reader aware of the fact that cancer and cancer treatment have been here for a very long time. There are other illness that demand biographies; I think it would be interesting to read a biography of heart disease how it became a big problem that includes major players like the American diet/customs. I also think lung cancer specifically would make a good read.
3. I think history repeats itself not only in cancer research but in cancer itself as well. Cancer repeats itself I think because every so often we see the same kind of eruption of cancer diagnosis that we saw a couple years ago. First, the book mentions this one; it was leukemia with hundreds of kids in the cold basements of hospitals. Then we saw an eruption of breast cancer in women and now recently we are finding and eruption in prostate cancer, etc, etc. and I think other cancers might be next, time would only tell. Cancer is repeating itself although in different forms. Cancer research is repeating itself because after every eruption or outburst of cancer research is put forth to try to stop the growth of the cancer and sometimes you have to start from scratch because not all cancers are the same and some drug that was developed for another cancer might not work for another. I think living in the past in not a good thing except for in this case; I think looking back to the discoveries that were made that pertain to cancer can help in the innovative discoveries to be made.
4. At the end of the book I am optimistic about cancer and its future. I think new therapies will be developed to cure cancer once diagnosed. Although I think cures to cancer will exist I also think cancer is still going to exist in the population because cancers are errors that the body simply might miss and thus leads to detrimental effects. So, I think cancer will exist and will inevitable as well. But the cures and therapies that go into each cancer will improve so as to fully cure a person from a cancer once it is diagnosed.
1. In the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDeleteThis book in short is about a story of cancer with setbacks, victories, and deaths. From Queen Atossa’s painful ordeal to the glorious ending with patient Carla being in remission. This book exemplifies the true ordeal of cancer in an array of aspects, from the beginning to the end. The most powerful image at the end can be summarized in Mukherjee’s “We can only find solace (comfort) when we demystify things.” I think this is both powerful and positive because this is true of life in general. We all have aspirations, dreams, goals, etc. however, we must truly analyze and expose our wish to be able to walk the path that will end with our desired outcome.
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
The definition of a biography is a detailed description or account of someone’s life. The author calls the book, Emperor of All Maladies, a biography because it is about an illness that completely changes a person’s life. A biography then can be written about any illness that changes a person’s life because that illness will alter that person’s life either major, minor, or somewhere in between. This biography is different from traditional biographies because it is written about a thing, cancer, versus the traditional, a person.
3. In what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
History “repeats itself” in cancer research because with new technology and advancement in research we continue to move forward, but every new discovery starts from the beginning, how does a cell become cancerous, what makes a cell abnormal, … Reliving the past gives you optimism for the future. In the past, cancer was new and vicious with everyone knowing nothing to little about the rapid and invasiveness of cancer. Reliving that now with more knowledge and advancement against this disease allows everyone to appreciate the advancement no matter how big or small it is and that is something that makes reliving the past worth it.
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
Absolutely! There is no benefit from being pessimistic. Things could only get better and better, no matter what situation you once were in…. Carla was in a situation when she was diagnosed with cancer but she prevailed and won her battle and now is in remission… Everything happens for a reason and things will always be better as long as you are optimistic and do not renounce. Fight on, optimistically.
1. in the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDeleteThe fictional journey of cancer throughout mankind was great. It showed how no one knew what it was but knew it was something wrong. How mankind have gone through trial and errors to find ways to remove the cancer. As the years gone by people have a more understanding of the cancer and find better ways to cure it. The book main point was that cancer will always be around because it is part of us whether we like it or not. We are the host of the cancer which is caused by many things that surround us and within us. To find a cure for cancer is hard to say that there is right now even with the latest technology and knowledge of cancer. Cancer will progress ahead of us but we can still find ways to prevent and extend the life span of a person with cancer.
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
Cancer has been around since mankind has been living in Earth. Throughout its years since the rising of cancer people have studied and treated to put a halt to it. Cancer can be written as a biography because many people know of it and have seen it progress. By making a biography it informs the history of cancer and what has been done to be able to learn from it and advance in treatment. This also helps to learn from mistakes and not repeat it. There are other diseases that could have a biography but most of them have been cured to never surface again. HIV/AIDS can be a good example for a biography since there is no cure for it just like cancer.
3. IN what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
In science there will always be experiments and hypothesis in diseases. Scientists will always look back at previous work to rely and compare their work. In cancer scientist need to look back at understanding the basics of the biologic aspect of cancer to find a way to find a cure Cancer history repeats itself because it keeps coming back no matter what.
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
I am optimistic about the science’s effort to combat cancer. Seeing how much has developed over the few years with technology that there is hope for a cure of all the cancers that there is. In the last few years there has been a breakthrough in understanding cancer more in depth than before. Even though it takes a long time to understand the biological aspects of cancer there is hope in the future. Humans can only hope and depend on science and technology for a cure.
1. in the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDeleteThey treated Atossa’s disease by chiseling away at her cancer with knives, scalpels, and some offered frogs blood, led plates, goat dung, holy water, crab paste, etc. as treatments. This alone shows how far cancer treatments have come since 500 B.C or even within the last century. This is a great example to display all of the technological advances that were displayed through out the book. Immortality is the strongest image in the book. The idea of cancer being cured is fascinating and leads to many different possibilities in what the future may hold.
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
A biography can be written about an illness because it is being done via the person experiencing it. An illness such as cancer obviously has a severe impact on a person’s life, which makes for an interesting biography genre. Other illnesses could also be considered for a biography if the illness were severe enough to affect that person’s life, otherwise the illness would not be the main topic of interest in the biography.
3. IN what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
The idea that history repeats itself in cancer research means that scientists often look back at previous findings and experiments to determine what might “repeat itself”. This is a useful tool and will continue to be a successful one when it comes to making new discoveries and administering protocols.
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
I am vey optimistic about science’s efforts to combat cancer. Over the last 100 years there have been so many advancements and new findings that have led to the understanding of cancers mechanisms, making research for the future reassuring. With technological advancements the potential for cancer research seems to be on an exponential curve, in the sense that there are no limitations to what the future may hold.
1. in the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDeleteThe book is the fight on cancer and all the progress that has been made over the years and the fights we won and have lost (death). Cancer treatment has changed quite a bit over the centuried and the image that emerges most powerfully at the end of the book is the image of the way mastectomies were performed. The surgical removals of breast cancer using a leather binding just sounds so painful but I feel we have progressed to less painful method such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery.
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
Usually a biography is written about a person’s life and all that had occurred in that person’s lifetime but in the case of this book, it is a biography of cancer, it discusses all the aspects of cancer that have been known since the beginning and it is a little different to write a biography about the cancer, but I feel that a biography can be written of an illness because a biography serves to inform the person of all about that person it can. This book informs us about cancer. I think there are many other diseases that demand a biography because there are others that have existed for a while and affect our presents.
3. in what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
History tends to repeat itself in cancer research in the sense that the findings that made in previous research are used and using those conclusions more hypotheses are made and more experimentation is performed. The past defines the layout and helps us figure out the present in terms of causes and helps us make new discoveries. In the past, cancers were just observed but now we can focus on curing them and so many discoveries have been made based on those observations thus showing that the past is important.
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
At the end of the book, I come away with optimism about science’s efforts on the war on cancer because we have made a great achievement since the beginning, before cancer was only observed and nothing could have been done about it and now we can diagnose and cure several of the cancers. I feel that we are continuing to make progress and that is why I am optimistic about it. If we were all pessimistic about cancer, we wouldn’t be able to work on this and find cures and make all this progress. You have to have hope to be able to make a change and believe in it.
1. I thought it was a very clever way to end the book. I liked how it took you through all the progress made from the beginning to the end. I especially liked how they ended it on a positive not with Carla, the person you met at the beginning that was in such a bad state when the doctor first met her. It makes the outlook much better. It would have been horribly depressing if they ended the book with Carla’s death.
ReplyDelete2. I think it can be called a biography of cancer because you are actually following the lives of so many people involved in it through time. So many people have been involved in research, medical trails, and the history of it, that it is like a biography of all the work those people put into it. A disease I would like to see a biography on is AIDS. There was a lot of good information and history of AIDS in this book as well, but I think it would be interesting to see a similar biography devoted to the disease and how it was treated when it first was discovered.
3. I think that history is going to keep repeating itself because there is a trend that we see with discovery. We discover a new disease; then we go through a process of trying to understand it and cure it. Often times, there is a period of trial and error where we think we understand something then come to find out that we don’t understand it as well as we thought and have to go back to the drawing board. Although our understanding of cellular functions and diseases continues to progress and grow, the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know.
4. It’s easy to dwell on the negative and have a bad outlook on the war with cancer. However, there were so many positive things to take away from this book. We have come a long way in a short period of time and I believe that we will continue to advance. We may never be able to understand the complex mechanisms of cancer to eradicate from the earth, but we will be able to come up with better screening tests to catch it in its earliest stages and to come up with better treatments that give people a better quality of life than some treatments in the (not so distant) past such as radical mastectomies for women with breast cancer. Now there are better screening tests and treatment options that are not so traumatic and disfiguring. Also knowing that people with difficult cases that appear very dire, can pull through with treatment and still have a quality of life, such as Carla.
1. The story of Queen Atossa was an excellent method to demonstration the progression of cancer awareness and the treatment used in each step. I would summarize this book as a history lesson on the most devastating disease which humans have encountered. The approach is optimistic but paints a realistic picture of the disease. The most powerful image I took from this books was the story of Carla Reed. I was really happy when she went into remission. That part alone made the book worth reading.
ReplyDelete2. I would contend that it is appropriate to use the word biography when written about an illness. A biography is a story of the progression hallmarks in a persons lives. This can be easily applied to the disease of cancer. As seen in this book, the disease had many pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of the way the disease it was viewed. Another disease I feel needs similar treatments AIDS. This disease is causing thousands of deaths yearly in Africa. This is unacceptable in my eyes. Perhaps a well written book on the topic taught in schools will bring up awareness in this area.
3. As cliche as it sounds you cannot have a future without acknowledging your past. Science advances by leaps and bound every year. With each study published the landscape of understanding of the disease changes. Just as in the past, this newly discovered information changed the scope of the researchers and Doctors involved. Although older findings may not be as relevant as the latest findings it is important to never forget the perseverance and endurance which early researchers displayed.
4. I came away with a optimistic view on the scientific communities effort of combat this dynamic enemy. As shown throughout this book there is a relentless effort made by Doctors and researchers to understand the disease and formulate viable treatment options. There have been many set backs on his journey but the will of scientific community will not waver and God willing we will see the Emperor fall.
1. If I have to summarize the book I would say it is an intimate description of a journey to the past of cancer as well as personal testimonies of an up-and-coming, compassionate oncologist. The image of Atossa was incredible. The author seemed to eulogize both Atossa and cancer. Atossa died of cancer before cancer was determined to be the beast it really is. The author tracked cancer from 500BC to present. Cancer, as we know is not dead but was described as such at Farber's memorial service (who died of cancer). Hiran Gans read some lines from "Swinburne's "A Forsake Garden" as he said, "death lies dead".
ReplyDelete2. Yes a biography can be written of an illness. Biographies always include the birth, life and death. So anything or anyone that demands a biography must eventually confront death.Cancer has yet to see its demise. Other diseases that demand a biography are Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, mental disease and many more.
ReplyDelete3. History repeats itself in cancer research out of pure necessity. Cancer is evasive and so it requires those who pursue it's cure, to consult the notes, maps, charts, and discoveries of scientist and physicians who studied before them. The author said, "The past is constantly conversing with the future. Old observations crystallize into new theories." I believe reliving the past is not only worth it, but the future of cancer research depends on it. If we don't know where we've been, how can we possibly know where we're going?
ReplyDelete4. Oh yes!
ReplyDeleteI come away with much optimism and expectation about science efforts. When I read of the tireless contributions of the research pioneers whose mail the current scientist depend on, I can't help but hope in the combat of cancer. Mostly, I appreciate the individuals who burned the midnight oil in an effort to discover BRCA-1 and 2, Her-2, ras, myc and Rb. Those individuals operated within the confines of the true meaning of 'onkos'. It means to carry, to move the burden from one place to the next, to bear something across a long distance and bring it to a new place. Therein lies my optimism.
1. In the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDelete• To begin I should note that I found it very interesting that Queen Atossa, back in 500 BC made her slave give her a vasectomy. And as the author made her go through the different eras, she only came to the present to get again another vasectomy with some chemo and radiation. Although the chemotherapy and radiation may extend her life by some years, depending how aggressive the cancer, but the treatment today has not really changed since Atossa’s time. This book has definitely made me more aware that not even age can prevent cancer. I think the quote, from the last chapter, that has impacted me the was “Hopefully one day death will lay dead.” Death, referring to cancer, will hopefully be dead and eradicated forever. It will take years, decades even centuries, but I have faith that our determined scientist will eliminate cancer one by one, either with new treatments or therapies.
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
• I think biographies can be written about anything, being that it is about cancer makes it only even more interesting. Just reading about all of the different experiences that people have gone through over many years makes this book what it is, which is amazing. The author really has a way with words, especially when he refers to cancer as the most grotesque thing in the world. Like the author, I believe that every biography must also confront the death of its subject, and it is sad to say that some do face death cancer but many more survive thanks to our advances in medicine. I think Alzheimer’s should be given a biography. I would be very interested to know the history and the biology behind it.
3. In what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
• History will repeat itself because cancer is something that can be treated but has the potential to come back. Targeting a specific pathway or a certain protein may treat the cancer, yet that ingenious cancer cell can acquire a new mutation and come back again. It is something that is hard to target and therefore hard to treat. The way in which cancer research repeats itself is that scientist have to keep going back to the drawing board to target the same kind of caner in a new way!
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
• By the end of the book, I do feel optimistic that maybe one-day cancer will be a thing of the past. Even though there has been great advances since Atossa’s time to now but at least we have extended life expectancies for those that have had cancer. Moreover, science, even if it is not successful, will keep combating cancer. A quote from the book that has stuck with me: “Cancer, we have discovererd, is stitched into our genome. Oncogenes arise from mutations is essential genes that regulate the growth of cells. mutations accumulate in these genes when DNA is damaged by carcinogens, but also by random errors in the genome when the cells divide. Like the author says, we can only rid ourselves of caner only when we rid ourselves of the processes in our physiology that depend on growth, like aging, regeneration, and healing reproduction.”
1-I think that his use of Queen Atossa by author reflects the fact that there have been break through steps towards cancer thinking aspect, not only we know so much more about the cancer then last half century, considering the therapies and treatment options available that were not available 20 years ago. As far as the end of book is concerned, it was an happy ending, considering that Carla went in complete reemission, which considering her condition nothing short of a miracle, thanks to cancer treatments.
ReplyDelete2. Disease, considering their effect, are quiet similar to concept of life it has a beginning and end to it just as passage of life. Biographies are about individuals who are remarkable, and so is their impact, disease for instance cancer have huge impact, considering they become part of our everyday life, which are usually distasteful, but nonetheless significant. There are many diseases for which biographies could be written for instance arthritis, and other heart conditions.
3. Past is very much part of our future, its more like taking a composite midterm, you have to go back and look at the stuff from previous exams and go over the notes again, same concept with cancer, looking at the past advances help us to gain a stronger grasp on biology of cancer and mechanisms involved within.
4. By human nature, optimism is part of us, but scientifically speaking, in evolution of things, I am quiet optimistic about cancer treatments, if not cure then the second best thing, which is complete reemission. Perhaps tailored chemotherapy, at the end there is no limit on creativity.
1. I really enjoyed this book and the ending where the author depicted Atossa’s journey as similar to the immortal life of cancer. I think it is quite interesting how cancer is described as an immortal disease; and since it is one of our top killers of humans I think it is ironic that we need to kill our immortalized cells in order to be “immortal” ourselves. Cancer is innate and inevitable to who we are the longer we live the more likely we are to get it. Immortal cancer is the reminder that we can never be immortal, for cancer can never be truly immortal; it will kill its host if it survives and if we survive we will eventually endure cancer.
ReplyDelete2. I definitely do believe diseases can have biographies especially one so vastly consuming of human life as cancer. I think this biography really helps people to understand the horrors and the difficulties patients, doctors and researchers go through when it comes to cancer. Its seemingly an unstoppable disease. I believe that HIV should have a biography. I think that it has such a bad reputation and many myths that are mainstream, but completely untrue. I think it would be an interesting biography to understand the history of the disease and the hardships in combating it. I also think influenza would be an interesting biography.
3. I think that history repeating itself with regards to science and cancer is just that with every new and scary disease we alway have to start somewhere; with nothing. We work our way up like cancer physicians did. You try and understand the disease, make the disease relevant to the public, gain monetary research backing and dive in. We are going to make mistakes and take chances, people are going to die but in the end we will always make progress no matter how small. I think hostory repeating itself is kind of like a sign of hope for new diseases to come; they may be as virulent as cancer, but we can handle it.
4. I do come away with optimism. After reading this book I really understand how far we have come and how intricate and political this war on cancer really has been. I think that the beginnings of fighting a new disease is always the hardest because you really don’t understand it yet. I think that with time and effort we can continue to combat cancer and find ways to alleviate the burdens of cancer victims and hopefully prolong their life for a good amount of time. We all have our time, and since cancer is an aging disease it will just become so much hard to stay in remission as we grow older.
1.In the end of the chapter the images that capture me the most is the archaic surgeries that were performed to eradicate the cancer. It’s unreal to imagine that they would open people up without any kind of anesthesia and work on them with dirty instruments. It was really nice to follow Queen Atossa through time and imagine how cancer would have been dealt with.
ReplyDelete2.This book made cancer a perfect candidate to be a biography. Even though usually a biography is only short lived throughout a person’s life, it showed that cancer will always remain in society. Cancer seems to have no death, but we are learning from it and how to deal with it. I think that HIV should get a biography, it would be interesting to read about the virus and how its rapid mutation has been though in finding a cure.
3.In cancer there have been physicians and doctors that have had to try new radical things to find new treatments against cancer. There needs to be room to try and explore new things to battle against this maladie. For example this is how they found chemotherapy for cancer. There has been many chance discoveries that have radically changed the medical field. It is always important to know what has occurred in the past, this is what helps guide us to finding new treatments. We can always look at what worked and didn’t, and try to find new methods to change the outcome of the treatments.
4.At the end I come out with optimism. Cancer is a disease that will always be present, but that doesn’t mean that people should have to suffer through it. The advances in science have made it possible to cure people at early stages or extend their lives at the very late stages. The advances in science have come a long way and they are showing great progress.
1. Mukherjee’s choice to bring back the Persian Queen Atossa—one of the first depicted cancer victim, and to have HER see the development of how cancer can be treated was an ingenious way to summarize the developments of cancer. I probably would not have chosen the exact literary creativity but rather taken another creative liberty by taking our initial central character Carla Reed and take her back in time to see the initial emerges of cancer, meet young Sidney Farber in the midst of his leukemia research, and to see emerging leukemia treatments. However, Mukherjee’s conclusion using Queen Atossa as “cancer’s Dorian Gray” and to use progression of breast cancer as a model of cancer development was very well done (463). Another striking metaphor at the end of the book was that of cancer patients being “locked in a chess game…a morbid, hypnotic game” –where cancer makes a move and the patient attempts an “equally assertive move in return” (470). Mukherjee utilizes this literary device to successfully capture the image of an endless battle until the victim or the personified cancer reaches victory.
ReplyDelete2. Although biography is a story of progression about a person, because cancer is a disease that engulfs people’s lives so intimately to the point of personification—the author records the biography of the disease. On top of its human-intimate-nature, the story of cancer is almost equated to a tale of an undefeated monster in which battling and strategizing its defeat are the main plots throughout this entire biography. Such personification is does not only pertain to extreme diseases such as cancer, but any disease that has a progression and involves some sort of this life-engulfing nature. Examples of diseases include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and many genetic disorders.
3. Cancer research has its constant ups and downs with streams of trials that don’t work and the “up” discovery of new treatment or new mutation finding. And also because of the abrupt and new nature of cancer appearance despite finding a cancer drug that targets specific mutation, such reliving the past is worth doing to allow us to keep on finding treatments for the each new cause of the disease. Therefore, cancer research yields a constant cycle of finding new problems and attempting to target that new problem—which its process is indeed critically important.
4. Despite the end emphasis on the still ongoing battle against the enemy cancer for four thousand years, the biography still sheds positive light on the progression of cancer research. This is particularly so since Mukherjee eludes on all the recent research and accidental treatment discoveries has come about within the last century to allow understanding of cancer. According to Mukherjee’s quoting of Sun Tzu’s work: ‘The Art of War’, “…if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle” (210). Such quote emphasizes the importance of comprehending yourself AND your enemy in order to combat battle. Because we have come a long way to understand cancer, with each scientific finding, we approach optimism for defeating cancer.
1. When the author created the story of Queen Atossa it was really a revelation of how cancer has progressed and become what it is. The fact that cancer immortal is very pronounced in the book towards the end. The need for cancer to be immoral in order for treatments to develop is also apparent. If cancer was not a huge problem in terms of destroying the body then it would not be an issue. But what was more interesting was the fact that the author makes it seem that cancer is a part of us and is present whether known or unknown. Research for the development of how cancer works is only a small fraction of what actually occurs in the body and although treatment options for cancer patients have evolved it is not a complete cure that has overrun the body. So how do you treat something that is immoral is what the end of the book questions, the answer is that it could only be postponed because something that is immoral is meant to never die, always evolve to live, and always thrive.
ReplyDelete2. It think that it is a clever way of going about calling cancer a biography, because a biography is an account of someone’s life and he took someone and made it cancer. I think the author did a really good job in doing so because he made cancer into a character has developed and progressed into its own form, which is holds true for what cancer really does. I think that diabetes and strokes need a biography that describes its progression to people in order to understand what needs to be done and how to fight against them.
3. The fact that “history repeats itself” is in the sense that cancer will come back in any generation and for future generations. It is every occurring in the history of mankind. But how we acknowledge and better understand cancer from the past only can thrive us forward into the future with a better understanding and possible alternative cure or treatment.
4. Throughout the whole book it was a constant battle towards cancer. And cancer has become a war that scientists, doctors, and patients constantly fight. In between this war there are battles, some battles are won and some battles are lost but the overall fight continues. This book has really done a great job in describing cancer and who it is because it has become a person that has affected other people and it has shown ways to combat and even try to win the war on cancer. But it is not the end of cancer and I believe that with upcoming technology and better knowledge of cancer we can perhaps match the playing field and even develop a way to cure cancer.
has changed over the centuries. How might you have summarized this book? What image or metaphor, emerges most powerfully at the end of this book?
ReplyDeleteI think the story of Queen Atossa really reflects the battles we have ongoing with cancer. Some battles won and most definitely 1. in the final chapter of the book, the author creates a fictional journey for Queen Atossa through time to demonstrate how cancer treatment lost. The image that most impacted me was that of an immortal life of cancer. Indeed, cancer is as immortal as we are, with our deaths (the vessels in which it inhabits) it too dies. Thus showing cancer is a part of us, it resides in our being, mutations that go wrong. Then how do we stop ourselves.. The best way is treatment and catching it early. Nonetheless, on a better note, the ending was good because we were able to find that Carla Reed, the patient we read about in the beginning with ALL, indeed went into full remission!
2. The author calls this book a biography. Can a biography be written of an illness? Are there other diseases that demand biographies?
It sounds a little odd to me calling this book a biography of cancer. Only because biographies are ususally written about people, specifically written about one person and their journey in life. Cancer is not a person, it is a disease that people have, a mutation and overgrowth of cells that ultimately end in demise of those who have it and dont catch it early or treat it. Also, there are many types of cancers, of which this book addressed alot, but not specifically one, nonetheless, just because the cancer originates in other organs, does it not do the same damage. Indeed, it does, and it proliferates cells much in the same way, no matter where in the body. In technicality, I don't agree with the term biography for cancer, I would if we had a cure, because that would mean we know everything about it, and is not that what a biography is, a full account of the subject at hand. However, I believe calling it a biography is a creative way to catch people's attention, and I can't think of any other title to call it that would capture my attention as much as this. I would name a biography for other illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease only because it is really catchy and perhaps more people would get informed and remedy the diseases.
3. IN what sense does history "repeat itself" in cancer research? In science, where new discoveries keep altering the landscape, what is the worth of reliving the past?
I think what it means by history repeating itself is that cancer strikes at any time, at any age. This has been occuring since 500B.C. If it wasn't re-occuring, we would not be experiencing this disease today. Moreover, by discovering new treatments changes the way we look at cancer and how we treat it, but we still have to look back to see what we might have missed. We need to do this much like Farber did, when he looked back at someone else's research and used folate on his leukemia patients. Much to dismay, it hastened the death of those patients he administered it to. But without this important discovery, he would not have thoguht of using antifolates on cancer, and thus having patients go into remission, at least for a few months. This is why it is important to look back in the past, because the past, at times, holds key to what the future may bring.
4. At the end of the book do you come away with optimism about science's efforts to combat cancer? Why or why not?
Throughout the book there have been many battles against cancer, l eaving us in a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. I feel optimistic after reading the book that we could find a cure, not even 70 years ago, Farber discovered the use of antifolates to combat cancer, and with this more and more advancements have followed. Indeed, with greater technology, I really do believe we can finally win the war against cancer.
1. The ending to this book gave me a feeling that cancer is going to be around for a very long time. It's as Mukherjee said, "cancer, we have discovered, is stiched into our genome." So it seems impossible to completely get rid of a disease that is in us when we have and will be around for a very long time, alongside of cancer. I don't mean to contradict myself, as I mentioned earlier in the third set of questions that we have not failed the war on cancer because I do believe in a cure, just not anytime soon. We can clearly see this when Mukherjee is taking us through time to see how Atossa's cancer would be treated diferently as the years pass. Many ideas and advancements have accumulated over the years with that time we've spent with cancer. I believe Germaine's death was a powerful image in the war on cancer. She fought hard to survive, seeking out newer and better drugs, spreading her knowledge and helping others on the net. Mukherjee explains that her own personal battle was like she "had encapsulated the essence of a four-thousand-year-old war."
ReplyDelete2. Mukerjee had mentioned to us that as he was writing this book. he realized that he was writing a biography on cancer rather than its history. Cancer comed from within ourselves. He felt this disease closely resembles an individual, therefore writing a biography of someone instead of something. I am not sure what other diseases could be written in this same manner. It does seem like cancer is a unique disease because it can arise in any part of the body: muscle, bone, brain, and lungs and it does not discrinmate between the rich and the poor, the rude and the kind, the happy and sad. However, cancer is like several other diseases that cannot be cured and can take over the lives of those whose body it invades.
3. When Mukherjee was mentioned about history repeating itself, he was talking about the way scientists have gone about trying to cure the disease, like with experimentation. It was the desire and resilience to keep looking for a cure, even if that meant experimenting with a chemical and not being sure of the outcome. By going back in time to see what others have done, we can learn what worked and what didn't, and progress from there. It was that sort of mentality that have resulted in effective treatments and cures for cancer today.
4. Yes, I definitely feel like the author was optimistic about science fighting the war against cancer. Germaine's story showed us that even though we are losing battles everyday, we don't go down without a struggle. Germaine did not give up easily, just as Farber did not give up easily in finding a cure. With all of the progress we have made over the years, it's difficult to ignore the fact that we have made great and effective discoveries and continue to do so against cancer. It will not be an easy fight and we take Mukherjee's perspective when he says "this war on cancer may best be 'won' by redefining victory."
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