The Emperor of All Maladies：A Biography of Cancer

作者: Siddhartha Mukherjee （悉达多·穆克吉）著

出版社: Scribner

出版时间: 2008-01

ISBN: 9781439170915

定价: 158.10

装帧: 平装

开本: 其他

纸张: 胶版纸

页数: 608页

正文语种: 英语

分类: 外文古旧书>英文书>文学

21人买过

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer." The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.

From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave may have cut off her diseased breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

与一般的科普作品相比，这本癌症的传记颇有一股文士之气。清晰易懂自不用说，在穆克吉的笔下，癌症不止是一种医学现象，也不止是一个亟待攻克的科学难题，而是与我们有着剪不断理还乱纠缠的另一个自己——如果说人类的进化是一出戏，那么地球就是大场景，故事的主角自然是人类，而最终Boss，就是人类的私生子：癌症。
早先的人类因各种疾病而死，平均寿命也不过四、五十岁。工业革命以后，生活条件好了，科学技术，尤其是医药科学得到长足发展，人类的寿命大大提高，而这恰恰给了细胞以变异的机会。在美国这样的发达国家，癌症是仅次于心脏病的第二大健康杀手——而在比较贫困和相对原始的地区，大多数人还没有活到细胞能够发生变异就病死了，癌症与痢疾相比根本算不了什么，那里的人还在为饮用水担心。
所以说，癌症基本上由人类自己培育而成，到头来却奈之不得的对手。穆克吉写道：“人类想长生不死，于是癌细胞继承了我们的执着。”
人类与癌症的斗争是血腥的，也是不成功的。这是一场永远赢不了的战役：找得到病灶，却不能釜底抽薪。慕克吉指出，人类摆脱不了癌症，因为人类不能阻止细胞衰亡、不能抑制细胞自愈、也不能消灭细胞分裂。
身为肿瘤学家，现实与科学不允许他放手描绘一个幸福的未来。但穆克吉还是给出了非常保守的展望：如果我们转变目标，不求“消灭”癌症，但求与之“和平共处”，未来还是很有希望的。尽量延长癌症患者的寿命，杀死癌细胞将不再是癌症治疗的关键，患者的正常细胞也可以免于放射治疗的侵害，让癌细胞与正常细胞处于动态平衡。
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. His book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters. Author's Note xiiiProloguePart 1 "Of blacke cholor, without boyling"Part 2 An Impatient WarPart 3 "Will you turn me out if I can't get better?"Part 4 Prevention is the CurePart 5 "A Distorted Version of Our Normal Selves"Part 6 The Fruits of Long EndeavorsAtossa's WarAcknowledgmentsNotesGlossarySelected BibliographyPhotograph CreditsIndex
内容简介:
The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist's precision, a historian's perspective, and a biographer's passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer." The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.

From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave may have cut off her diseased breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee's own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

与一般的科普作品相比，这本癌症的传记颇有一股文士之气。清晰易懂自不用说，在穆克吉的笔下，癌症不止是一种医学现象，也不止是一个亟待攻克的科学难题，而是与我们有着剪不断理还乱纠缠的另一个自己——如果说人类的进化是一出戏，那么地球就是大场景，故事的主角自然是人类，而最终Boss，就是人类的私生子：癌症。
早先的人类因各种疾病而死，平均寿命也不过四、五十岁。工业革命以后，生活条件好了，科学技术，尤其是医药科学得到长足发展，人类的寿命大大提高，而这恰恰给了细胞以变异的机会。在美国这样的发达国家，癌症是仅次于心脏病的第二大健康杀手——而在比较贫困和相对原始的地区，大多数人还没有活到细胞能够发生变异就病死了，癌症与痢疾相比根本算不了什么，那里的人还在为饮用水担心。
所以说，癌症基本上由人类自己培育而成，到头来却奈之不得的对手。穆克吉写道：“人类想长生不死，于是癌细胞继承了我们的执着。”
人类与癌症的斗争是血腥的，也是不成功的。这是一场永远赢不了的战役：找得到病灶，却不能釜底抽薪。慕克吉指出，人类摆脱不了癌症，因为人类不能阻止细胞衰亡、不能抑制细胞自愈、也不能消灭细胞分裂。
身为肿瘤学家，现实与科学不允许他放手描绘一个幸福的未来。但穆克吉还是给出了非常保守的展望：如果我们转变目标，不求“消灭”癌症，但求与之“和平共处”，未来还是很有希望的。尽量延长癌症患者的寿命，杀死癌细胞将不再是癌症治疗的关键，患者的正常细胞也可以免于放射治疗的侵害，让癌细胞与正常细胞处于动态平衡。
作者简介:
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. His book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.
目录:
Author's Note xiiiProloguePart 1 "Of blacke cholor, without boyling"Part 2 An Impatient WarPart 3 "Will you turn me out if I can't get better?"Part 4 Prevention is the CurePart 5 "A Distorted Version of Our Normal Selves"Part 6 The Fruits of Long EndeavorsAtossa's WarAcknowledgmentsNotesGlossarySelected BibliographyPhotograph CreditsIndex