SUNSHINE

Facing up to terminal cancer—with his students.

When Lin, a Stanford University physician and researcher, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, he was devastated. But as his work had always focused on both medicine and the humanities, he dove in, intensely researching both the science of his disease as well as the science of his state of mind. Soon after, he launched a class to share what he was learning. Based on the class, the book is full of valuable tips—both emotional and factual—for cancer patients, as well as for doctors, students, families, and friends. Don’t worry about sugar fueling patient tumor cells, he writes; the important thing is to keep weight steady to properly titrate drugs. Understand that organic veggies are not more anti-cancer than other fresh veggies. Fight health insurance rejections when they are nonsensical. Encourage patients to share fears in group therapy and to focus on family, friends, nature, spirituality, and hope—the “sunshine” of the title. Often in books like this, the science comes much later in the book, possibly because editors advise authors that the public has problems absorbing science—and this book is no exception. This is perhaps the book’s only major flaw, as relevant cancer research breakthroughs are accelerating and the author is a beneficiary of some of them. He describes recent and ongoing breakthroughs in cancer immunology, genetics, technology, and targeted drugs so vividly that they lift the prose—provoking both intellectual excitement and the “hope” that he argues is so important to all cancer patients’ health, no matter how advanced the cancer. The book’s science sections also firmly support the author’s highly convincing argument for fighting the Trump administration’s massive and random cuts to science and medical research.

A helpful book for virtually anyone affected by cancer.