The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a biography of cancer that exhibits how cancer has evolved and traveled to places all over the world.This book is made of multiple stories relating to cancer. These stories are about people’s lives and how they have changed because of cancer. Mukherjee tells not only the story of cancer but also the struggles and hardships of it. First of all, what is cancer? Cancer is the abnormal growth of cells. “Cancer is not one disease but many diseases.” Although, they all share a common aspect, the uncontrolled multiplying and division of cells. When the extra cells that are formed, divide endlessly, they may cause growths called tumors. This …show more content…
Smoking can lead to many types of cancer. Lung, lip, throat, tongue, and esophageal cancer are all caused by smoking. Some would have to have their jawbone sliced off to remove an invasive tongue cancer. He tells stories of his patients and what happened to them because they smoked. He tells of a grandmother who had taught her grandchildren to smoke, then later was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. A priest with terminal lung cancer that had said smoking was the only vice that he had never been able to overcome. Someone who had smoked to calm his nerves, later had to have his jawbone sliced off to remove tongue cancer. He tells of a Brazilian ophthalmologist named Hilario de Gouvea who had treated a young boy with a very rare eye cancer called retinoblastoma by removing the eye surgically. This boy had survived, grown up, and married a woman who had no family history of cancer. This couple had many children, two of their daughters developed their father’s retinoblastoma in both eyes, and died. This book is a great way to present facts and also keeps the reader engaged. It presents its details in a story format which makes reading it easier and more enjoyable. It gives information on the different types of cancer and how each of them affect us and what it could lead
After we got back from the ER we received some blood from a Nurse that came to drop off some blood from a boy that was fifteen years old. The nurse said to the girls that the boy’s cancer had spread
One of the concluding sentences that Dr. Sharon Moalem directs toward her audience is, “[...] Our relationship with disease is often much more complex than we may have previously realized.” “Survival of the Sickest” delves into the theme of the way inheritance and genetic codes in our bloodlines allows fatal diseases to enter our body and the reasons for this happening. The author discusses various diseases and their origin, and includes facts as to how this disease is able to affect modern life. She suggests that said modern diseases played a necessary part in the survival and selection of those before us in our history.
Having cancer frequently forces patients into changing their lifestyles for the better. It is proven that making positive lifestyle changes decreases the chances that cancer will recur. "Many patients and survivors worry about cancer coming back after treatment. Evidence suggests that making positive lifestyle changes during and after cancer treatment may help prevent a recurrence or second cancer" (Healthy Living After Cancer). This can show how the fear of the recurrence of cancer can drive the former cancer patient into being healthier.
(1) He went to the doctors and they told him the unfortunate news that it was ‘oestogenic cancer.’ (1) This is a ‘very rare type of cancer which effects mostly children and young adults.’ (4) It has a ‘survival rate of about 5 years’. (4) This type of cancer ‘may spread to the lungs’ as it did with Terry
The body is created from millions of tiny cells. There are different types of cells in the body, and there are many different types of cancer which came from different types of cell. All types of cancer cells are abnormal and do not respond to normal control mechanisms. Large numbers of cancer cells accumulate either because they multiply out of control or they live much longer than normal cells would do or both. Myeloma is one type of cancer.
Illness as Metaphor Illness at a Metaphor by Susan Sontag discusses how metaphors complicate diseases or syndromes of multiple or unknown causes. Sontag says that the most truthful way to describe illnesses is without any influence of metaphors, to keep it as pure and scientific as possible (Sontag 3). However, metaphors are a part of everyday life and it is nearly impossible to escape the use of metaphors to describe illnesses.
Overall, this book made me change my view on diseases. Like many other people, I once believed that diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hemochromatosis, and others had no advantage to humans. From this reading this book, I learned that even though many diseases are deadly and vicious, they also have some advantages to humans as well. A possible future research would have to be on Ebola. Ebola is a malicious disease that first originated in Africa.
George Washington Carver was a great man with many beneficial accomplishments. Carver's life was not all smooth sailing, he worked hard and earned all of his success. His main goal was always to help others. He was motivated by many different things in his life. Carver’s long hours dedicated to helping others benefited many people.
Smoking is mostly known for cause lung cancer or even throat cancer but little do we know that it can also cause anal cancer. Smoking can cause more than just those types of cancers because the smoke travels throughout all of the body. Smoking is also a big cause on how the immune system can be less effective when it comes to fighting the HPV infections (Dr. Sajad Ahmad Salati, 2012).
In the fall of 1999 his doctor diagnosed my grandfather with terminal lung cancer. I was there that day when she showed him the x-rays of his upper body. Right on the outer edge of his left lung was a large white spot about an inch round, tendril-like rays shot out from it in all directions, and a tail curved over to the right side of his lung so that it resembled a meteor falling from the sky. I was there as his interpreter, translating the doctor 's words into Spanish. "Surgery is not an option...
Back in February little six year old Alice from Brunswick heads had been suffering pain to her lower back when she lay down. As the pain eventually got worse, after many tests were run and long weekends spent in the hospital, Alice eventually lost use of her legs. Results from a special scan that she had, came back and revealed that she had a tumour in her spine. The growth was known as Ewing’s Sarcoma which is a rare form of bone cancer. The cancer got worse and they were eventually flown to Brisbane for medical treatment.
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee and is shaped as a biography of cancer, published in 2010. Siddhartha Mukherjee is an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Mr. Mukherjee has become a storyteller of one of the most phenomenal stories in science that has ever been told, the history of cancer. The author talks about the setbacks and victories of cancer treatment. Dating back 550 BC from the Persian Queen Atossa’s breast cancer, which was excised by her Greek slave, to the 20th century’s battles with chemotherapy.
Smoking causes close to 40% of cancer death in the US. Each year, cigarettes kill about 500,000 deaths in the US and about 6 million deaths around the world. Cigarettes are the reason for most of the deaths in our society today that is not a death by a natural cause. Even though smoking has been in a sharp decline in the past decade, there are still around 40 million of people in the US that still smoke cigarettes. This high number really concerns many doctors and
“Is it cancerous?”, I asked as the doctor broke the news to me and my mom “How is that even possible?”, as I also asked in clear shock. But before this, I lived like an ordinary child would; go to school, make friends and have a blast while being eager to learn, people were close to me, but I really hadn’t thought too much of it. I was a more of a cheerful kid, laughing at everything told to me. That’s why people liked me, my laugh would brighten the classroom. I would always say, “I can’t wait” and time did fly as it seems like just yesterday.