Searching for a 'Cure'
KELMAN, STEVEN
Searching for a 'Cure' The Siege of Cancer By June Goodfield Random House. 240 pp. $8.95. Reviewed by Steven Kelman Author, "Behind the Berlin Wall," "Push Comes to Shove" Speaking at the...
...1 have not seen similar calculations for Americans, but given the Norwegians' almost obsessive concern with health, I imagine our figures are no better...
...if anyone asks me I know not.' We all know what cancer is at the level of the patient...
...The Siege of Cancer focuses on research in virology, immunology, toxicology and epidemiology...
...Yet the issue is more complicated than this suggests, for some of the causes of the disease also have positive values: Many people genuinely enjoy smoking...
...This prevents it from being systematic, and absolves the author from the responsibility of integrating her points or presenting them in logical order...
...In any case, as Ms...
...those who reached 40 at the turn of the century were doubtless among the heartier members of the species...
...They have not yet isolated any virus in a cancerous human tissue, although the connection between the disease and viruses was postulated in 1911...
...Nevertheless, the data do suggest, first, that the vaunted 20th century "advances of medicine" have mostly been reflected in public health programs involving sanitation, immunization, isolation, and pharmacology...
...Goodfield shows, investigators are a long way from recognizing what cancer is and exactly how it arises...
...There are also chapters on the psychology of scientists and the pressures they face in the United States, and on the politics of the National Cancer Institute, a government-created agency that has aroused hostility among many scientists at least partly because it became the beneficiary of incredible Federal largesse just as President Nixon was seeking reduced appropriations for other research...
...About cancer she writes: "I can only say I wish we really knew...
...Goodfield provides a glossary of terms for the reader...
...At the end of the book, Ms...
...Another suicidal practice is exposing ourselves to cancer-causing substances—from cigarette smoke to asbestos, vinyl chloride, and perhaps the chemicals in bacon or red food coloring...
...Augustine's definition of time: 'If no one asks me I know well what time is...
...It is like St...
...In such instances an ounce of prevention may not be worth a pound of cure...
...One problem is eating too much of the wrong foods...
...In his address, the Norwegian representative argued Westerners would be doing themselves a favor if they renounced some of their overconsumption and sent excess supplies to the world's poor...
...This contributes to death from heart disease...
...We don't yet know what cancer really is at the level of the cell...
...The portraits are eminently forgettable, however, and one suspeots that the disconnected presentation of the studies going on at the various places the author visited is the result of her taking the path of least intellectual resistance...
...But is there a relationship between the agents...
...Nor do they know how cancerous cells escape the body's protection system or how they sometimes slip out of a tumor in one organ and metastisize (spread) to other organs...
...Thus, while it is true that heart ailments and cancer are the greatest "killers" of Americans, and while the aging process makes the body more susceptible to these fatal diseases, it does not by itself lead to them...
...She concentrates instead on the basic research being done to understand this disorder and develop more effective treatments...
...The book's main fault, in my view, is that each chapter centers on the work of one scientist or group of scientists working from a particular angle...
...At different places she discusses the relationship of cancer to viruses and to environmental factors...
...People, after all, still do die simply of old age...
...In The Siege of Cancer Jane Goodfield deals only in passing with this part of the equation—the outside causative agents...
...And second, that whatever medical progress has been made toward improving our chances of living longer than our 40-and-over forebears is being wiped out by our doing more things today to kill ourselves...
...If, for example, we could eliminate the harmful effects of cholesterol on the arteries, wouldn't this (provided it was not terribly expensive) be preferable to swearing off whipped cream cakes and toast with butter...
...The word "cure" frequently appears in quotation marks in the book, since scientists remain skeptical of finding one...
...DDT and DES (which saves grain by fattening up cows) help produce food...
...To a certain extent these surprising statistics result from natural selection...
...The stated purpose of the method used is to provide profiles of the scientists whose work is discussed...
...There have been stab-in-the-dark estimates that 80 per cent or more of cancers are the result of environmental factors...
...Reviewed by Steven Kelman Author, "Behind the Berlin Wall," "Push Comes to Shove" Speaking at the World Food Conference in Rome a little over a year ago, the Norwegian delegate noted that the life expectancy for a 40-year-old in his country had not increased since 1900, although life expectancy at birth had risen dramatically, mainly because of progress made fighting illnesses affecting children and young people...
...Scientists cannot distinguish a cancerous from a noncancerous cell...
...Devotees of the public health approach would probably scorn this emphasis and argue that it is better to invest in removing the environmental sources of cancer than in continuing research for a "cure...
Vol. 59 • March 1976 • No. 5
