BOOK REVIEW
THE DEATH OF
CANCER
Vincent T. DeVita Jr, MD
Reviewed by
Goetz Kloecker, MD
D
r. DeVita has been at the forefront
of cancer research and treatment for
the last 50 years. In the 1960s, he
was the driving force for the first curative
therapy of lymphoma when many in even
his own field doubted that this would be
possible. As director for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), medical director of the
Memorial Sloan Cancer Center in NYC and medical director of
the Yale Cancer Center, he has been a major general in the war on
cancer. His book predicting the death of cancer is a testimony to
his courage and fighting spirit. His lively anecdotes describe the
hurdles and barriers in this war in vivid detail. Many of the barriers
in his mind had less to do with the viciousness of cancer, but dealt
in no uncertain terms with the limitations imposed by prejudice
and institutional or personal self-interest. I was surprised how deep
grudges can run, even after half a century of fame and confirmation. Many of the initial standard bearers of oncology- Karnofsky,
Zubrod, Paul Carbone, James Watson - look less like heroes after
reading DeVita’s account. DeVita obviously is not mincing words
and not shy in expressing uncomfortable opinions.
The first part of the book describes DeVita’s s hesitant but then
whole-hearted conversion to the budding field of oncology, after
signing up at the NCI to evade the Vietnam draft. When he calls
the ground-breaking scientific brain storm sessions with mythical
founders of the field such as Freireich and Frei “the society of jabbering idiots,” it reminds me of the absurdities (and the truths) in
the book “The House of God.” Sometimes extreme medical intellect
can appear grotesque, until its value is proven by surprising clinical
breakthroughs.
After an impressively successful career which DeVita describes
with the help of his daughter, a scientific journalist, he attacks
simmering disputes and issues in cancer research, funding and
treatment. In his opinion no one is brave enough to express the
flaws in our system openly for fear of upsetting the establishment
- except for himself, at this stage in his life. Therefore he takes up
this mantle and, with uncompromising honesty, does not hold
back about the problem of politicians meddling with medicine,
the woes of the National Institute of Health, the FDA, the conflicts
within many world renowned nationally designated cancer centers
and, of course, specific persons with whom he worked. Many of
the practices that we take for granted nowadays, e.g., combination
chemotherapy or combining antibiotics, giving platelet transfusions
and targeting molecular pathways, have been part of a slow process,
moved forward by determined personalities often against much
resistance. We [