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 I don't even remember where I was introduced to this book or this author, but I know it has helped shape my thinking on modern cancer research. Why am I interested in cancer research? I don't even know, other than the fact that we spend so much on it as a society, with so few results.
The premise of the book is that a large part of the cancer research establishment is using a flawed approach by conducting their research on cell lines that have been cultured in petri dishes for decades. This is not an accurate basis for curing cancer, Dr. Dermer argues, and he makes the case pretty persuasively.
Almost everyone knows someone with some form of cancer. While I would recommend the book to everyone as an eye-opening look into the politicization of the scientific establishment, this book is better at stating the problem than proposing solutions.
And that's okay. The text on the cover says as much: "After forty years of losing the war against cancer, isn't it time to ask, What is science doing wrong?"
That's why this book is important. What is science doing wrong that it has wasted so much time and money on unproductive lines of research?
The answer is money, of course. That's not a wholesale repudiation of American capitalism in health care. I'm a capitalist at heart, and believe companies with a profit incentive are genuinely looking for solutions to cancer. I don't believe pharmaceutical companies are the Great Satan, or that there is some massive conspiracy in American health care to waste money. But there is a tremendous amount of money at stake in coming up with "the next big thing" in cancer research, and that pot of gold can bias the perspective and decision-making of the stake-holders. I highly recommend this book, along with Dr. Peter Duesberg's Inventing the AIDS Virus.
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