Tag: cancer

The emperor of all maladies: A biography of cancer.

This book won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 2010. It is written by a physician who interweaves his clinical experiences as a medical oncologist with the history of cancer, including how humans came to understand that it wasn’t one disease but several and how treatments were developed as scientific understanding of human bodies progressed. For example, realizing that bodies were made up of cells and that cancers were also cells rather than viruses was a big step forward in the 1840’s.

The work is constructed as within stories within stories, including cases of patients, biographies of scientists and doctors, and Mukherjee’s own learning to become an oncologist through the inevitable trial and error of medical education. Written (almost) as engagingly as any novel, it’s still a big commitment for a student or layperson and not easy to assign in small parts. It might be most useful as a background reading to get a sense of medical history generally and a somewhat soothing answer when it seems like every third person you know is dealing with cancer (partly because we’re all living so long, partly because – all that other stuff).

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

A contemplation of the limits of medical care through many specific stories of decision points about when to stop treatment in favor of palliative care. Gawande has been a physician for a long time and an activist/ writer on the side of “know when to say when” – i.e. just because medical technology exists to prolong life doesn’t mean that’s the best thing to do – for almost as long. He makes convincing cases for stopping expensive treatment and “giving life to days” more often than Hail Mary passes that might bring on the 2% chance of a cure.

The book is a readily accessibe read for many audiences and could be assigned in full or excerpted. It was also the subject of a PBS documentory that could be used to supplement class use and bring the text to life.

Look Now Project: Survivor Stories

This digital humanities project includes stories and images of breast cancer survivors. Project creator Tula Goenka (a breast cancer survivor) and her collaborators seek to “break down the barriers between a survivor’s public persona and their private struggles with the disease, and to put a face on breast cancer in our local community.” The first installation in 2018 included interactive text, graphics, mirrors, and an experimental silent film accompanying 25 participants’ clothed photographic portraits and images of bare chests, and 19 who chose to remain anonymous except for their bare chest close-ups. In 2019, Goenka and her collaborators created TitBits: Breast Cancer Stories, a documentary theater performance. The multi-media website includes media coverage of Look Now and TitBits, oral histories, images of bare chests after lumpectomy or mastectomy, and resources on breast cancer.

I have used Anju’s story (“Life Happens Keep Smiling”) from this website in a Narrative Scribe Training workshop for college students, medical students, and health care professionals. After viewing the video together, we discussed what may be left out of a transcript and the importance of listening closely not only to what is said, but also how it is said, what is not said, and how our own experiences and identities shape what we hear.