One in Three: A Son's Journey Into the History and Science of Cancer

Then his father was diagnosed with cancer, writer and documentary director Adam Wishart couldn't find a book that answered his most basic questions: What was the disease, how did it take hold, and what did it mean? What is it about cancer's biology that makes it hard to eradicate? How close are we to a cure? Wishart couldn't find the book he was looking for, so he wrote it. Here is his personal, journalistic take on the history of cancer and the encouraging story of science's progress in changing the outlook on cancer from a disease we die from to one we live with. Wishart eloquently interweaves two powerful stories: his father's personal experience from diagnosis onward, and the full story of the discovery of cancer, its treatment, and--increasingly now--the hope for a cure. From the heroic science of the eighteenth century, when the disease was first recognized, to the research projects around the world that have enormously extended the life expectancy of people with cancer, One in Three covers two hundred years in cancer's history, and the story of one man's life and his illness. One in three of us will develop cancer. This book will help us to understand it without fear.