The transition from cancer biologist to blogger dictated
that I start with a book that envelops both worlds. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Emperor of all Maladies fills this
category perfectly. Thank goodness
for the subtitle “A Biography of Cancer”, since the actual title is somewhat
obscure. At least now we know what
we’re getting into! My parents gave
me this book for Christmas last year.
In their defense, I asked for it . . . and started reading it soon after (it’s a long one!).
Written
by a physician, this history of cancer research combines the scientific details
that I spend my days poring over with some poignant personal ancedotes. I would highly recommend this book for
anyone wanting to know more about how the field of cancer research has progressed
over the last 100 + years, including the science and the non-science inclined. Many
parts of this book incited my inner academic as well as my emotional
subconscious. True to form and my
rambling sort of meanderings, there are way more subjects to discuss than can
fit into one blog entry. So, for
both our sakes, I’ll break these up over the next couple of entries . . . to keep
you coming back for more and to give me time to finish my next book (TBA). . .
. hehe.
The
first concept that became quickly apparent is how long ago we, as a human race,
acknowledged the existence of cancer.
Considering that we only knew about such fundamental concepts as the
structure of DNA in 1953, the fact that people back in 400 BC (that’s right
folks, more than 2400 years ago) had a word for this large overgrowth seems
astonishing. Of course, although
they knew of the existence of this karkinos,
the chemists and biologists understood very little of the underlying basis of
cancer or had any effective way to treat this disease.
Interestingly,
a lot of the physicians’ recommendations for the origin and treatment of cancer
were actually somewhat intuitive, albeit extremely misguided. For example, Galen, around 100 AD,
postulated the first theory on the origin of cancer, explaining that cancer was
a result of “black bile” that accumulated in the body, ultimately resulting in
a mass. Because this “black bile”
permeated throughout the entire body, it was extremely difficult to treat (they
tried blood-letting . . you guessed it, without success). Sounds preposterous, yes? However, take a closer look and you
might realize that perhaps they were on to something. If you think about how large and advanced a tumor would have
to be before it could be detected back in the day, it most surely would have
metastasized, or traveled, to distant sites within the body. Galen’s theory of cancer flowing
through the body doesn’t sound so far-fetched after all. Coincidentally, it also saved the
patients from undergoing excruciating surgery before the invention of
anesthesia (phew!).
Of
course the scientific community long ago put Galen’s theory on a shelf and
identified cancer as a disease of uncontrolled cell growth. But, perhaps we can learn from
this and the multitude of other examples where men and women followed their gut
feelings and ended up making great discoveries. The moral of this story: Follow your intuition!
"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
Jonas Salk
