To Be of Use: Five Decades as a Cancer Doctor Including the Story of the Conquest of Childhood Leukemia

To Be of Use: Five Decades as a Cancer Doctor Including the Story of the Conquest of Childhood Leukemia
July 21, 2020
Author: Edward Arenson MD CWSP (Author)
Publisher: Xlibris US (July 21, 2020)
Language: English
Paperback: 182 pages
ISBN-10: 1796099074
ISBN-13: 9781796099072
Book Description
The year is 1971. Childhood leukemia, the most feared disease in the era of antibiotics, is the most common cancer of childhood and 100% fatal. These are trying times for those like me who, unaccountably, have chosen the field of pediatric oncology. In the absence of effective treatment, we have little to offer but our good intentions. On the other hand, things couldn’t get much worse, so we are certain that they must get better. Little do we know, however, that we are on the cusp of a breakthrough. It has been observed that remissions achieved with combinations of chemotherapy drugs often end with the appearance of leukemic cells in the nervous system. Perhaps the nervous system is a “sanctuary site” where drugs cannot reach leukemic cells. To address this problem, radiation is given to the brain. Within a few years we notice that many children are still in remission longer than expected. Ultimately, we are willing to call them “cured”. This book relates this and numerous other major developments In cancer treatment as experienced Author: the author who provides his personal perspective on those people and events which moved the field forward and others that didn’t. The current status is critically and sometimes humorously reviewed.