When Rick Hill, who was diagnosed at the MAyo Clinic with very aggressive embryonal cell carcinoma at a very young age, learned about a nutritional clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, that was treating terminally ill people, he journeyd south. Hill, a former stand-up comic readio talk-show host, takes you on a hilarious and poignant trip through helath food stores in the 1970s and his experiences at the Mayo Clinic. He recalls how he went from a "greaser" to a tree-hugger and food fanatic, but nothing compares with how he slipped through a rabbit hole, ended up in Mexico, and beat The Cancer Conundrum. Praise for The Cancer Conundrum "Don't let the title of this book fool you, this is laugh-out-loud funny. It also has a life-giving message." Dr. Brent Allan, Scottsdale, AZ. "Like my father before me, I have admired Rick's willingness to stay on his program and share with others his success." Dr. Francisco Contreras, Oasis of Hope, Tijuana, Baja BC www.OasisofHope.com Rick's style of humor and dedication to 'Resetting" his life daily us an inspiration!" Janyce Hustwit, Ph.D

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

With the fascinating scholarship of The Emperor of All Maladies and the deeply personal experience of When Breath Becomes Air, a world-class oncologist examines the current state of cancer and its devastating impact on the individuals it affects -- including herself. In The First Cell, Azra Raza offers a searing account of how both medicine and our society (mis)treats cancer, how we can do better, and why we must. A lyrical journey from hope to despair and back again, The First Cell explores cancer from every angle: medical, scientific, cultural, and personal. Indeed, Raza describes how she bore the terrible burden of being her own husband's oncologist as he succumbed to leukemia. Like When Breath Becomes Air, The First Cell is no ordinary book of medicine, but a book of wisdom and grace by an author who has devoted her life to making the unbearable easier to bear.

Framing the discussion as a crime tried in the court of public opinion, presents a lighthearted examination of the trolley problem--one of the most famous thought experiments in modern philosophy.

When Rick Hill, who was diagnosed at the MAyo Clinic with very aggressive embryonal cell carcinoma at a very young age, learned about a nutritional clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, that was treating terminally ill people, he journeyd south. Hill, a former stand-up comic readio talk-show host, takes you on a hilarious and poignant trip through helath food stores in the 1970s and his experiences at the Mayo Clinic. He recalls how he went from a "greaser" to a tree-hugger and food fanatic, but nothing compares with how he slipped through a rabbit hole, ended up in Mexico, and beat The Cancer Conundrum. Praise for The Cancer Conundrum "Don't let the title of this book fool you, this is laugh-out-loud funny. It also has a life-giving message." Dr. Brent Allan, Scottsdale, AZ. "Like my father before me, I have admired Rick's willingness to stay on his program and share with others his success." Dr. Francisco Contreras, Oasis of Hope, Tijuana, Baja BC www.OasisofHope.com Rick's style of humor and dedication to 'Resetting" his life daily us an inspiration!" Janyce Hustwit, Ph.D

Most cancer deaths are a result of metastasis. The spread of a primary tumor to colonize neighboring and distant organs is the relentless endgame that defines the neoplastic process. Patients who have been diagnosed with cancer are treated to prevent both the recurrence of the tumor at the site of origin and metastasis that would re-stage them as advanced stage IV cancer. Historically and still with some types of cancer, stage IV is perceived by patients as “terminal.” Fortunately, recent molecular therapies have extended the lives of patients with advanced cancer and reassuringly people living with metastatic disease increasingly visit our clinics. What is the path forward? Given that the consilience of science and medicine is a dynamic art from which therapies arise, it would be misguided to consider any single work adequate at capturing the horizon for research. So with humility we constructed this text as primer for scientists. It begins with a broad introduction to the clinical management of common cancers. This is intended to serve as a foundation for investigators to consider when developing basic science hypotheses. Unquestionably, medical and surgical care of cancer patients reveals biology and dictates how novel therapeutics will ultimately be evaluated in clinical trials. The second section of this text offers provocative and evolving insights that underscore the breadth of science involved in the elucidation of cancer metastasis biology. The text concludes with information that integrates scientific and clinical foundations to highlight translational research. This book serves as a framework for scientists to conceptualize clinical and translational knowledge on the complexity of disease that is metastatic cancer.

This book provides a systematic review of the management and treatment of this disease. The concise and highly structured chapters feature essential background knowledge and commentary on recent advances within each step of a range of patient pathways. Management of Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer provides a framework for patients’ care based on the research, as well as practically and clinically oriented guidelines. This book is relevant to trainees and practicing urologists and oncologists, in addition to medical professionals involved in the treatment of bladder cancer.

This fully updated and revised second edition address specifically some of the significant advances made in our understanding of the pathophysiology of penile cancer including discussion of the suspected role of the human papilloma virus in penile carcinogenesis. Similarly, the molecular pathways implicated in precancerous and penile cancer will be discussed as these are the present targets of novel therapeutic approaches to this disease. The text details the recent national and international diagnostic and treatment guidelines that have been developed by both the National Comprehensive Cancer Network© and the European Urological Association establishing evidence based standards upon which the care of penile cancer should be based. The text also covers significant advances made in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to both primary tumors and inguinal nodal metastases resulting from penile cancer such as penile sparing surgery and minimally invasive inguinal lymph node surgery. The text will similarly highlights the improvement in cancer specific outcome in the management of loco-regionally advanced (N2/3) penile cancer managed by upfront systemic chemotherapy followed by consolidative surgery in appropriately selected patients based on recent prospective phase II data. It also covers the role of radiotherapy in the management of penile cancer for both primary tumors and/or at sites of regional or distant metastases. Finally, some of the novel systemic approaches being devised in the management of advanced penile cancer along with some upcoming international trials soon to be opened which likely will re-define the present therapeutic approaches to penile cancer are discussed. The Second Edition of Penile Cancer: Diagnosis and Treatment will constitute a comprehensive review of the above mentioned subjects in addition to a few select topics of high clinical relevance, with the readership predominantly consisting of urologists, medical and surgical oncologists, and other healthcare professionals.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

The Cancer Within examines cervical cancer in Romania as a point of entry into an anthropological reflection on contemporary health care. Fashioned by patriarchal relations, lived religion, and the historical trauma of pronatalism, Romanian women's responses to reproductive medicine and cervical cancer prevention are complicated by neoliberal reforms to medical care.