Cancer Book Reviews

JANET MASLIN REVIEW - NEW YORK TIMES

"Mr. Wishart reports that during his years of writing and talking casually about cancer, he had a horrifying effect on others. Hearing him, listeners would shiver or quail or walk away. But his book does not prompt that kind of response: Mr. Wishart has done copious research and used it to shape a story more gripping than frightening ... [he] remains too erudite and civilized to succumb to fear."

How good is that?
LINK

Salon.com Review

The wonderful Andrew Leonard at Salon has written the first American review of the book.

"Wishart's genius is in combining the wrenching story of his father's cancer with the broader medical history of humanity's struggle to understand and treat the hydra-headed disease. ... To provide hope to others in the midst of his own sorrow is a marvelous achievement: "One in Three" is a fine piece of work."

LINK (its free, you just have to watch the ad)

The Reviews.

“ONE IN THREE shines like a good deed in a world full of unnecessary books…… Wishart has produced a book that is informative, balanced, accessible, and absolutely riveting.” David Lodge's Pick of 2006 in the Guardian, author of Changing Places, Small World.

"For clinicians, this book may be a useful source of information to recommend to patients, or it may serve simply as an interesting read into how contemporary cancer research and treatment came into being." LANCET ONCOLOGY

“Adam Wishart's extraordinary book will be indispensable to anyone dealing with cancer, because it is so clear-eyed, so measured, so informative, and so quietly moving. He elegantly integrates the history of cancer research with the story of his father's illness. In doing so, he makes abstract science accessible and dignifies a human story with the insights of medicine. After reading this book, you have not only more knowledge, but also more insight and compassion.”
Andrew Solomon, author of Noonday Demon, a New York Times bestseller

“Wishart succeeds brilliantly in constructing a narrative that is a tribute both to his father and the scientists who have partly unpacked the mystery of cancer” Simon Singh, Sunday Telegraph

“An imaginative fusion of anecdotal detail, medical science and poignant, elegiac narrative marks every chapter of this unusual book.....Wishart’s book inhabits a remarkable genre of its own.” John Cornwell, The Sunday Times

"Wishart seamlessly weaves together the personal, the historical and the scientific threads of his narrative to tell the story of cancer" The Guardian

“[An] immaculately researched tale of medicine's struggle with cancer..” Lindsay Banham, The Lancet.

“ONE IN THREE offers real hope.” British Medical Journal.

“From one family’s cancer fight comes a book to help us all.’ Brian McIver, Daily Record

“ONE IN THREE is a consuming read. Part history lesson, part sociological study, part scientific journey, Wishart artfully serves up the right mixture of technical terminology, explanation and personal story….. Moments are beautifully described … and it is a privilege to be given such access to the workings of the human heart.” Jacqueline Burton, Sunday Business Post.

“Calm, factual, beautifully written, intelligent and moving. ... this book brings understanding, and most of all it also brings some hope.” Literary Review

“A neat and moving blend of science and the intensely personal.” Mary Braid, Sunday Times in Scotland

“Perhaps the most readable and comprehensive account out there of our battle with the big C." Michael Bond, New Scientist

“An amazing book - it stands out as being an intelligent, balanced review of a complex and emotive subject. It's simply the best in its class today. Essential reading for anyone who has cancer or loves someone with the disease." Karol Sikora, Professor of Oncology, Imperial College London, advisor to WHO Cancer Program

"This emotionally charged account distinguishes itself not simply in the way it gracefully meshes together complex, competing theories about the disease, but in its generous use of a loved one as a case study." Kim Hjelmgaard, Scotland on Sunday

Picks of the Year

ONE IN THREE has been pleasingly picked in some of the pre-christmas roundups.

In the Observer.

Some words of praise for Adam Wishart's One in Three. Subtitled 'A son's journey into the history and science of cancer', the book interweaves two very different narratives: the history of cancer research and the story of how Wishart's father contracted and finally succumbed to the condition. The former sections are models of scientific clarity, the latter are powerfully written - and profoundly moving.

Link.

In the Sunday Times:

Although it enters a crowded field, Wishart’s account of his father’s death from cancer is moving, medically informed and exceptionally well written. Multiplying cancer cells are likened to “useless hotel bellhops passing on every bit of foyer gossip as a genuine message”. The aim, to dispel the “blind terror” that the c-word still evokes, is generously fulfilled, while he never shrinks from describing the irreparable loss of a parent’s death.

Link: Blowing their own trumpets .

And by David Lodge in the Guardian:

Adam Wishart's One in Three (Profile) interweaves a moving, but unsentimental, account of his father's last illness and death from cancer with a history of the disease and its treatment from classical to modern times. Informative, balanced, accessible, and absolutely riveting.

Link: Take a leaf out of their books .

Lancet Oncology Review.

"The scientific and clinical content of the book is accurate, engaging, and accessible to those with little scientific knowledge... sections of the book impressively convey issues that people sometimes grapple with"

It's strange how people tend to notice the smallest inconsequential things about a day that changed their lives forever—the falling rain, the colour of their shirt, the strength of their coffee. Such sensual experiences become embedded in memories, adding detail to an experience that is almost inhuman. One in three: a son's journey into the history and science of cancer effectively captures the real and seemingly surreal aspects of family life that occur after a diagnosis of cancer. Moreover, Wishart's book tacitly adds myriad details to the lives of those who have played a pivotal part in cancer research and treatment.

Marrying together the narrative of his father's diagnosis, treatment, and death from cancer of an unknown primary site with that of a history of cancer, Wishart begins with the surgical removal of a tumour in the vertebrae of his father's neck, and uses this as a vehicle to describe the first tumour excision in front of an audience of London doctors in 1831. Subsequent chapters follow a similar, rather arresting reading format: his father's continued treatment with radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and alternative medicine introduces readers to those who made a notable contribution to cancer. Wishart has penned excellent portrayals of the lives of Rudolf Virchow, Marie Curie, Wilhelm Hueper, Richard Doll, Austin Bradford Hill, Sidney Farber, Mary Lasker (who kick-started Richard Nixon's war on cancer), Penny Brohn (who established the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in the UK), Robert Weinberg, and Bernard Fisher. Throughout, the political context in which these people worked enriches the text. Of particular note are the descriptions of Marie Curie's work as she lobbied for research funds in the USA and that of Bernard Fisher's breast-cancer prevention trial, which is written with great insight into the point of view of society and the media during that time.

The scientific and clinical content of the book is accurate, engaging, and accessible to those with little scientific knowledge; however, Wishart uses analogy as his vehicle of explanation to ensure that concepts are not oversimplified. Some sections of the book impressively convey issues that people sometimes grapple with: a chapter on prevention, for instance, discusses the difficulty in communicating risk, and in developing and licensing a drug—in ensuring that its benefits justifiably outweigh the risks. For clinicians, this book may be a useful source of information to recommend to patients, or it may serve simply as an interesting read into how contemporary cancer research and treatment came into being.

Wishart's overarching theme is hope—that treatment and quality of life for patients with cancer worldwide will continue to improve, accompanied by improved understanding of cancer and greater empowerment of patients. One in three certainly contributes to these hopes.

Breast Cancer Patient Book Review

There is a lovely review from a message board:

"I'm someone who finds the shedloads of rubbish (to quote Kate Carr) on the shelves about cancer very depressing and undermining and isolating, but this book is exciting, powerful, real. A bonus too is that Wishart's father was, like me, an atheist and a humanist and so both father and son's attitude to death is eminently refreshing."

LINK for a bit more.

Sunday Business Post

Moments are beautifully described in One in Three and it is a privilege to be given such access to the workings of the human heart. And yet, they are sparsely sprinkled over the course of this book......

One in Three is a consuming read. Part history lesson, part sociological study, part scientific journey, Wishart artfully serves up the right mixture of technical terminology, explanation and personal story.

LINK.

The Lancet Review

Wishart has created something that will offer comfort to thousands: patients and their relatives may now better understand the reasoning behind some of the investigations and treatments they undergo. And by highlighting successes, medicine's aim of making cancer something we live with, not die from, seems less of a distant hope.

In search of the cure
Lindsay Banham
One in Three: A Son's Journey into the History and Science of Cancer
Adam Wishart
Profile Books, 2006.
ISBN 1-861-97752-2.
Pp288. £15·00.

In my view, the best doctors are those who truly remember what it is like to lie on the examination couch. If ever there was a book that could remind health professionals of patients' need for information, empathy, and humanity, this is it.

By recounting the story of his father's illness, Adam Wishart captures so well what it is to be in a position of powerlessness and confusion when facing cancer. Offering us more than a simple narrative of his experiences, Wishart is courageous enough to try to answer the two questions “one in three” of us may eventually ask “why me?” and “why isn't there a cure?”

Going back more than 2000 years to the first recorded cases of cancer may seem an over-zealous way to tackle a modern-day scourge. But such a step does remind us that we are wrestling with a very old and very complex problem. His father's love of science has influenced Wishart deeply, and shows itself in the close attention to detail he uses to guide us confidently through complex advances in specialties such as molecular genetics. Although some of the language used is necessarily quite technical, it is never off-putting. Jargon is well explained, and balanced nicely by excerpts from interviews with scientists who led their fields and made the past breakthroughs we now rely upon. Pioneering science aside, Wishart is brilliant at explaining the political manoeuvrings of researchers looking for funding and recognition. In the past, as today, politics, timing, and luck form more than just the background to many innovations.

Although professionals will benefit immensely from reading One in Three, patients are the real targets of this part-biography, part-medical history. By bravely using his father's story to add the sparkle of humanity and reality to his immaculately researched tale of medicine's struggle with cancer, Wishart has created something that will offer comfort to thousands: patients and their relatives may now better understand the reasoning behind some of the investigations and treatments they undergo. And by highlighting successes, medicine's aim of making cancer something we live with, not die from, seems less of a distant hope.

Part of cancer's power to devastate is hidden within its status as a great unknown; if we can remove some of the mystery, then perhaps we can lessen the harm it does. As I finished this book, I hoped that the author's public exposure of his own wranglings with the injustice of cancer had gone some way to answering difficult questions. And I hoped that, through writing his book, Wishart himself found some peace.

British Medical Journal Review

Faced by his father's mortality, Adam is imprisoned by emotions. Both father and son are bound by the social stereotypes and expectations of their gender. The pursuit of understanding is the comfort zone of their relationship, and so begins the author's research into the history of cancer...... ....... One in Three offers real hope.

"I love you dad." I looked at my 5 year old son and made a mental note to complain to the school about the subversive content of its discussion forum classroom activity known as circle time. I explained that he didn't even know me and that he should wait until he was at least 40 before he started making any definite commitment. He nodded, but I wasn't sure that he understood. In Britain, understatement rules supreme, and Brief Encounter—the dullest film ever made—is considered by many as our greatest love story. Emotional Americana makes many of us squirm.

Adam Wishart's father is diagnosed as having metastatic cancer. Faced by his father's mortality, Adam is imprisoned by emotions. Both father and son are bound by the social stereotypes and expectations of their gender. The pursuit of understanding is the comfort zone of their relationship, and so begins the author's research into the history of cancer.

Names of certain medical heroes, who have caused generations of medical students' eyes to glass over, are all here: Hippocrates, Galen, Snow, Virchow, Morgagni, Lister, Marie Curie, Farber, Doll, and many lesser known luminaries.

The ancients believed that cancer was an illness of melancholy. It was not until the scientific revolution of the 17th century that these views were swept aside by the advent of medical dissection and then the microscope. Lister, influenced by Pasteur's germ theory, used antiseptics and ended the scourge of Victorian surgery—infection. Combined with new anaesthetics, effective cancer surgery became a reality and ended the butchery of the past. The chance discovery of x rays and radium at the start of the 20th century opened a new door into both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy in the 1950s cured children with leukaemia.

In the 1960s, with the love-ins and the lunar landing, humanity and especially America seemed able to conquer all. President Nixon seeking his place in history (he needn't have worried) declared a "war on cancer." The search for the magic bullet against cancer began in earnest, but death rates were unchanged.

Punk and industrial recession saw the optimism of the 1960s and 1970s vanish. Society began to question cancer care. The mutilating surgery, the poisonous chemotherapy, and the scorching radiotherapy had traumatised families and patients alike, with little seeming benefit, so patients turned away from conventional treatments. With the rise of alternative therapies, medicine was forced to relinquish its "monopoly on wisdom."

As for the modern love affair for all things "screening," Wishart neatly explains that paradoxically the individual is never likely to benefit directly from screening. Finally he looks at gene therapy and ponders whether this is the magic bullet.

The story of the author's father is woven through the book until his eventual death. Clearly, being a man and telling your father that you love him isn't easy. No circle time for us. One in Three offers real hope.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Des Spence, general practitioner

Sunday Telgraph Review

Simon Singh has written a lovely review:

"ONE IN THREE describes Adam's attempts to understand the history, science and treatment of the illness. It is also a touching and deeply personal farewell. ... Wishart succeeds brilliantly in constructing a narrative that is a tribute both to his father and the scientists who have parly unpacked the mystery of cancer"

Image of how it was in the paper
Full Text Online

Sense About Science Review

When I first heard about One in Three, in particular that it was a son’s personal journey into the history of science and cancer, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was concerned that this book would be too grim or too personal. However, I am delighted to say that I was wrong; this is a fascinating book of the history of medicine and cancer and, in the end, reassuring.

<a href="http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/index.php/site/other/70
">Link

Sunday Times Review

An imaginative fusion of anecdotal detail, medical science and poignant, elegiac narrative marks every chapter of this unusual book..... What emerges is a unique profile of a father-son relationship, poignantly affectionate yet utterly devoid of sentimentality.

Every year a great many books are published about cancer. Scientific studies in oncology proliferate as medical science expands. There is a virtual publishing industry, moreover, in objective, information, advice, and self-help for a general readership. There are also books that tell the stories of individual sufferers; they do not make comfortable reading. Yet some accounts succeed in giving both sufferers and those close to them hope and strength. It is this cathartic effect that raises CS Lewis’s A Grief Observed (later made into the film Shadowlands), into a work of literature. And now there is Wishart’s book, which inhabits a remarkable genre of its own.

Link

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New Scientist Review

From the New Scientist

"THIS book does two things well. First, it details the history of medical science's crusade against cancer, from the brutal surgery of the early 19th century to the latest work on its genetic origins, while explaining the biology of the disease and how it spreads so successfully. Secondly, alongside this the author interweaves a frank story of his father's fight against cancer. He spares few details, from the effects on his father's state of mind to the defective p53 gene in his prostate. The result is perhaps the most readable and comprehensive account out there of our battle with the big C."

Link

David Lodge

David Lodge, the author of Small World, Changing Places and Nice Work, says this about my book.

"One in Three shines like a good deed in a world full of unnecessary books. No disease exerts such universal dread as cancer, and yet few of us really understand its nature. By interweaving a moving, but unsentimental, account of his father’s last illness and death with a lucid history of cancer and the efforts of medical science to find a cure for it, Adam Wishart has produced a book that is informative, balanced, accessible, and absolutely riveting."

How good is that?

Clare Rayner

Claire Rayner, long time agony aunt, one-time cancer patients and President of the Patients Association has lovely things to say about my book.

“This book is a remarkable meld of medical history, scientific fact, and the human experience of cancer, once – and to an extent still – the most feared of diseases. Adam Wishart follows his father’s experience of cancer, as well as his own as a son, in the most enthralling manner possible. I couldn’t commend it more highly.”

How good is that?