Will I love The Emperor of All Maladies?

"The Emperor of All Maladies" is science history at its best. A trained oncologist, Mukherjee has the experience needed to make abstruse concepts intelligible to lay readers (though the sheer volume will likely keep you challenged). The disease was terrifying enough to read about, but the early treatments--above all, the radical mastectomy--were shudder-inducing; the hubris of the early physicians and surgeons, galling. But there is much more to the story continues into and through the 20th century. Mukherjee's "biography" of the dread disease helps us understand our present by fearlessly exploring the broad sweep of cancer's past.

The author, an oncologist, takes the readers on a journey into the history of cancer, from centuries ago when the earliest physicians barely knew what they were dealing with, to modern times when heavily researched science determines treatment and cures. I enjoy books about science (at least when they are written in terms a non-scientist can understand) and I also enjoy books about history. This book combines those topics, making for a fascinating read, although because of the subject, parts of it also make for a depressing read.

Less than a century ago, having a diagnosis of cancer was almost universally a death sentence, if the word was even uttered at all.

In The Emperor of All Maladies, Mukherjee (who overlapped in training with me) takes us back in time to the heroic – and at times cavalier and even brutal – procedures and discoveries that led to the very first cancer treatments, some of which are told by the people who pioneered those therapies.

The Emperor of All Maladies lays out the history of research on specific cancer treatments, showing that most treatment plans have a foundation in vetted quality research. I found that very helpful once I was diagnosed with cancer since it allowed me to trust my doctors and their recommendations. The book also shows that most cancer researchers are dedicated to the work and to patients. As an oncology nurse I worked with physicians whose egos were the focus of their practice. Mukherjee’s portrayals of altruistic physicians helped me see doctors more generously.

Cancer is one of the leading killer of people, and has become an iconic disease of our age, cutting many lives short. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer Prize winning book provides an inside look at how we have come to better understand this disease and curb its effects for many, but not all.