THE TOPIC OF CANCER

by Ira Pilgrim ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1974

Teacher-researcher Pilgrim's book is practical, honest, and full of the knowns which you may have read before if you are generally informed about all the unknowns of this disease, or rather diseases. The most reassuring preventative fact you will learn is that you should stop smoking, if you are one of the few ""cranks"" who already hasn't. In easily available language he discusses cancer as the ""scapegoat of all our fears,"" its dynamic growth process, the overly optimistic ""breakthroughs"" (cancers are as variable as their causes), chemically induced carcinomas, smoking the single most potent carcinogen -- and radiation, viruses, the inheritance factor, various therapies and the occasional spontaneous cure, quackery, concealment (the truth is always best for doctor, patient and family), and the National Cancer Institute -- a big science bureaucracy heavily hampered by politics and waste. Pilgrim is prosaic and on occasion schmaltzy when he talks about the still greater unknown, foresees no crash cure within five to a thousand years and omits personalizing material altogether in providing a sensible purview of the problem.

Pub Date: July 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION