The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There - Vincent T. DeVita Jr. & Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn

This book is shocking and frustrating and hopeful and fascinating. I recommend it to people who could get cancer, literally everyone. I don't think I can state how important this book is!  It's essentially a history of cancer treatment, quite literally.  When the author (now in his 80's) began his work in the 60's, there was some surgery and radiation, but mostly the "treatment" for cancer was a pat on the back and they sent you home to die. Seriously.  They didn't even TRY to do anything most of the time because "why? it will just prolong the suffering".   At one point, the author resigned from a lead position at a cancer hospital because no one would listen to him (never mind the fact that he'd  practically built the NCI and Sloak-Kettering himself). The announcement was done by his primary antagonist who explained that "the problem with Dr. DeVita is that he wants to cure cancer."

There were and continue to be so many problems, it's a miracle anyone goes into remission! Here are a pair of examples:

1) The author begins the book with a story about his friend, Lee, who develops prostate cancer at the age of 60.  The author makes recommendations to doctor after doctor, pulling a few strings to get Lee the best care. It works.  At diagnosis, Lee was given a very grim outlook, he had all the worst signs.  But using Dr. DeVita's vast knowledge and connections they push Lee's cancer into remission several times, but each time it comes back worse than before, and subsequently resistant to whatever treatment worked previously, but there were several steps in the process where he could have been cured and only red tape and bureaucratic bullshit stopped him.  The author got his friend enrolled in an experimental drug research group that had a good likelihood of working, but Lee's cancer was more dire than the subjects selected for the experiment, but because of his connections, Dr. DeVita was able to get Lee in a sort of tester side project: given the experimental drug alongside the subjects, but just not reported in the final paper because he didn't qualify for the study group.  The drugs works, but because Lee's cancer was larger, he needed to be on the drugs for longer.  He wasn't permitted. Why? Because the study ended. No actual reason.  Lee's cancer came back. Later research on more advanced stages determined that he would have been cured had he continued the regiment.  Then Dr. DeVita heard about another drug that was successful in advanced prostate cancers just like Lee's, but the research was completed.  The new research was testing the drug on less advanced stages.  It had not yet been approved by the FDA, which purposefully approves drugs slowly, even after they've been proved effective in people, so Lee wasn't allowed to have it even though it had been proven effective for his kind of cancer.  Lee lived much longer than his first doctor estimated, but in the end, he died for no reason other than the drug that would have saved his life was being sat on by the FDA.  The experiments were cut short and the drug fast-tracked because it was so successful.  It reached the market 2 years after Lee died.

2) The author was asked to weigh in on a rich Italian's son's cancer problem.  The type of cancer the son had was curable so Dr. DeVita was concerned when the Italian doctors were adamant that it wasn't working.  He flew all the way to Italy to figure out why.  He looked at the son's charts for 5 minutes and knew why.  The Italian doctors weren't giving the son full doses, they were afraid of causing too much discomfort and looking bad in front of the influential father.  All they'd done was teach the son's cells how to get around the medication.  The author sat down with the Italian doctors and told them what they were doing wrong, why and the consequences of it.  He meticulously laid out the doses and schedule they should be using.  They rolled their eyes at him, so he went to the father.  He informed the father what was wrong and why.  There was the Italian version of a national cancer hospital where Dr. DeVita knew the head physician and knew that the proper schedule would be followed, but the father refused to send his son there because it was "for poor people". The son died.  He died because of his father's pride and his doctors' fear.  Incidentally, don't be rich and famous and get cancer, their outcomes are always worse because the doctors do dumb shit they wouldn't otherwise do.

Even when the author himself got cancer, he had to fight tooth and nail to get the care he knew he needed.  And he chose not to go to the hospital that he currently worked at! Different places do better on different kinds of cancer.

We've gotten as far as we have because of one woman : Mary Lasker.  She, single-handedly, was the force behind getting federal funding to fight cancer. She CREATED The War on Cancer.  If you have a loved one, or if you yourself have survived cancer, you probably have this woman to thank.  Without her, we would be much, much farther behind than we currently are.

When it comes down to it, we have the tools to kill all but the most obscure or aggressive cancer, we just don't always use them properly for many different reasons: doctor's pride or ignorance, crappy leaders of a hospital, a lethargic FDA, and, most disturbingly, insurance companies (because it wouldn't be worth it.)  During my short 1.5 months at MD Anderson Cancer Center I've not interacted with doctors and the most of the patients I ever see are tiny pieces in tubes, but I already know of one person killed by an insurance company in our trials alone. Everyone else in the trial went into remission and were doing very well, but that one person's insurance decided to reject the payment. That is unacceptable. This kind of bullshit is becoming more common.  American needs to get her head out of her ass and remember that a person is worth more than a few dollars.  The current for-profit system is vile and people will continue to die unnecessarily until we destroy our current system.  This book will piss you off.  Again, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Non-Campus Mentis: World History according to College Students - Anders Henriksson

This is a great book, though I think it might only be funny if you have a solid handle on both world history and geography.  I thought it was great.  It was compiled by a history professor of all the wack stuff he's read over the years in essay, term papers, and blue book exams.  Honestly, I can't imagine how much more there's been that just didn't make it into the book. This is great for a chuckle, and to feel wildly superior.
Sample:  The Black Plague - A plague of boobs

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Another random selection, much better results than last time!

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fun fiction romp.  The premise is old-world fairy tales retold with a modern twist.  I really enjoyed the book and would absolutely read more by this author in the future!