Taming Cancer: 21st Century Biology and the Future of Cancer Medicine

Taming Cancer offers a hopeful and compelling vision of a future when metastatic cancer will no longer be a harbinger of suffering and death. Rather, cancer will be managed as a chronic ailment over long time frames, like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. For the most fortunate patients, the elimination of cancer cells from the body—the long-sought cure for metastatic cancer—will become a reality for increasing numbers of patients.

This powerful vision is enabled by the ongoing emergence of a new paradigm in cancer medicine that began at the dawn of this new century. The long-established, toxic, and destructive therapeutics of the past are being supplanted by safer and more effective cancer drugs that target metastatic cancer at its molecular roots and empowers the immune system to seek out and destroy tumors. 

As a participant in this immunotherapy revolution during his four decades as a cancer drug developer (most recently at Amgen), the author takes the reader on a two-century-long journey of scientific discovery that provides an insider's view of where these medicines came from, how they work, and why they offer new hope to cancer patients and their families.

Written in an accessible narrative style, Taming Cancer is an enlightening and thought-provoking book written in an accessible narrative style that provides a whirlwind tour of modern biology in general and cancer biology in particular. Perfect for students, health care providers, scientists, and anyone else interested in learning more about “The Emperor of All Maladies” and what can be done to fight the most frightening and unpredictable of human diseases.