The Emperor of All Maladies

Leukemia - discovered in 1845
Pernicious anemia is caused by a lack of vitamin B
More than 300bn blood cells are produced per day, but if there is a lack of folic acid then production in the bone marrow halts.
Metastasis - "beyond stillness"
Cancer asphyxiates us by filling bodies with too many cells. It is an expansionist disease, it invades through tissues, sets up colonies in hostile landscapes, seeking "sanctuary" in one organ and then immigrating to another. It lives desperately, inventively, fiercely, territorially, cannily, and defensively - at times, as if teaching us how to survive. A cancer cell is an astonishing perversion of the normal cell. Cancer is a phenomenally successful invader and colonizer in part because it exploits the very features that make us successful as a species.
Cancer is a clonal disease. Nearly every known cancer originates from one ancestral cell that, having acquired the capacity of limitless cell division and survival, gives rise to limitless numbers of descendants.
Hippocrates around 400BC - Karkinos is Greek for crab. Onkos is Greek for a mass, a load, or a burden.
For Galen, around AD 140, both cancer and depression are caused by an excess of black bile. Melancholia comes from melas (black) and khole (bile).
Autopsy comes from the Greek "to see for oneself".
Anesthesia first demonstrated in 1846.
Pasteur proposes the existence of bacteria.
1867 - discovery of antisepsis through carbolic soap.
1895 - Rontgen discovers X-rays.
1902 - The Curies discover Radium, which is seen to be attacking DNA. Marie Curie dies of leukemia in 1934.
Specificity - the ability of a medicine to discriminate between its intended target and its host.
1849 - Wöhler synthesizes urea, demolishes vitalism and proves that organic and inorganic chemistry are interchangeable.
1882 - Chemotherapy, the use of chemicals to heal the diseased body is invented by Ehrlich.
Lymphomas - cancers of the lymph glands.
In 1944, the Manhattan Project spent $100m each month at the Oak Ridge site. In 1948, Americas spent more than $126m on Coca-Cola.
1918 - Spanish flu kills 600k Americans, and 50m people worldwide.
Howard Skipper - "A model is a lie that helps you see the truth."
The blood-brain barrier is an ancient biological system that has evolved to keep poisons from reaching the brain
Sarcoma - a cancer of the connective tissues
1952 - Polio vaccine.
Dogs, humans, and lions are the only animals known to develop prostate cancer.
Endocrine system = hormonal messenger system
Palliate comes from the Latin palliare = to cloak.
By 1953, Americans smoked 3,500 cigarettes per year
In 1953, the tobacco companies publish the "Frank statement".
"Doubt is our product"
1971 - Last cigarette commercial on US TV.
The time lag between tobacco exposure and lung cancer is 30 years.
1998 - The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the tobacco companies.
Carcinogenesis - a cell's journey toward malignant transformation.
1928 - Invention of the Pap smear.
1913 - Invention of the Mammography
Retrovirus - an RNA virus that can vonvert its genes into DNA and lodge into the human genome.
1955 - Philip Morris introduce the Marlboro Man