AN INTERESTING BOOK

Being diagnosed with cancer is more than just a devastating shock that upends an individual's life. It is also the start of a journey to a foreign land that is separate from everyday life and is populated by strange ideas, customs, and people: it's a journey into Cancerland.

That was the conclusion of David T. Scadden, MD, a hematologist/oncologist and the director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, when he went with his mother for her first hospital visit after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Seeing her change from a happy, outgoing woman to a frightened cancer patient as she crossed the threshold of the institute not only changed his perception of illness but also drove him to become first an oncologist and then a world-famous stem cell researcher.

He has now turned this journey into a book, Cancerland: A Medical Memoir, written with Michael D'Antonio, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. In it, he chronicles his trials and tribulations in treating cancer patients and then moving into research. He also presents a history of cancer treatment from the early 20th century.

The book has received a great deal of praise since its publication. It was chosen as an Amazon Best of the Month Book. A review in the Wall Street Journal commented: "For all the insight he offers into the hard science and thorny logistics of studying cancer, Dr Scadden's most moving passages consider the effect of the disease on the people who suffer from it and those who care for them."

Cancerland, which was published in the United States by Macmillan in July 2018, was also chosen as the subject of this year's Book Club session here at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2019 Annual Meeting.

David C. Smith, MD, from the Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, discussed the book with its author.