Although chemotherapy harms the immune system and is increasingly demonstrated to be an ineffective long-term cure for the vast majority of cancers, it remains the standard treatment for most cancer patients. Ruzic, a former scientific magazine publisher and originator of a science center, refused to accept this status quo, and instead plunged into the world of cutting-edge treatments, exploring the frontiers of cancer science with revolutionary results.
Ruzic went on the offensive: visiting scores of laboratories, gathering information, talking to researchers, and effectively becoming his own patient-care advocate. This book presents his findings. A scathing critique of the chemotherapy culture as well as unscientific "alternative" therapies, the book endorses state-of-the-art molecularly based technologies, making it an illuminating and necessary read for anyone interested in cancer research, especially patients and their families and physicians.
Neil Ruzic was expected to die within two years of his initial diagnosis. Five years later he has been declared cancer-free and considers himself cured.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface 1. Into the Pit 2. Watch and Learn 3. The Chemo Culture 4. Life before Cancer 5. Our War Within 6. A Half-Billion for Proof 7. The Language of Medicine 8. Cancer Vaccines 9. Premature Results 10. Co-stimulating T Cells 11. Do They Have to Die? 12. Alternative Magic 13. Allies in the Quest 14. False Alarm 15. Does Prayer Work? 16. Project Indolence 17. Cure Cancer in Ten Years 18. Think Tanks 19. Transplants: Risk vs. Cure 20. Pathways to Success 21. From India with Results 22. Anti-angiogenesis 23. The Mystery of Splenectomy 24. The Strep Connection 25. Patient Rage 26. The Biotherapy Revolution 27. Detour 28. Cure! 29. Waiting for Bexxar DAVID RUZIC 30. The End of the Race DAVID RUZIC Acknowledgments Notes Glossary Index Back cover |"In September 1998 publisher and scientific journalist Ruzic was diagnosed with mantle-cell lymphoma. . . . He faced a prognosticated further life-span of 18 months, and that would be made insufferable by side effects from the prescribed chemotherapy. . . . His scientific mind was certain that there were other, perhaps more effective and certainly less deadly treatment options, if one could find them. He made finding a cure for his cancer a full-time job. . . . He discovered that an abundance of biological therapies is being developed in the scientific, rather than the strictly medical arena, and he reports that those biotherapies and vaccines are proving highly effective for cancer treatment. His well-written memoir recounts a four-year odyssey that took him from splenectomy and diagnosis, through successfully ditching chemotherapy in favor of biotherapy, and to what he boldly calls a cure."—Booklist (starred review)"[Ruzic] here chronicles his pursuit of a nontoxic cure for his mantle-cell lymphoma. No ordinary patient memoir, this book provides an intriguing glimpse into the world of cutting-edge cancer research from the perspective of a well-heeled, highly educated patient willing to challenge conventional medical wisdom. Instead of undergoing chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant, recommended by several oncologists despite poor survival...