Each of us knows a few or several young people whose lives have been devastated by cancer. I don’t mean to be nihilistic about it, but it is very much an active killer of people now. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
Unlike other diseases, the vulnerability to cancer lies in ourselves. We always thought of disease as exogenous, but research into cancer has turned that idea on its head – as long as we live, grow, age, there will be cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
My memory of my household is of one immersed in books and music. I have a very intimate relationship with Bengali literature, particularly Tagore, and my interest besides reading then was music. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
Science is among the most profoundly human of our activities. Far from being subsumed by the dehumanising effects of technology, science, in fact, remains our last stand against it. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
Some cancers are curable, while others are highly incurable. The spectrum is enormous. Metastatic pancreatic cancer is a highly incurable disease, whereas some leukemia forms are very curable. There is a big difference between one form and another. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
There is an enormous amount of options that a physician can provide today, right down from curing patients, treating patients, or providing patients with psychic solace or pain relief. So, in fact, the gamut of medical intervention is enormous. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
Nearly every one of the genes that turns out to be a key player in cancer has a vital role in the normal physiology of an organism. The genes that enable our brains and blood cells to develop are implicated in cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
The gene that enables birds to learn songs can become cancer-causing. There is no normal physiological process that can’t be bastardized by the disease. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
I think you would have to be a nihilist to say that we are not making progress on cancer, just like you’d have to be hubristically optimistic to say that we have conquered cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
Probably the most important reason we are seeing more cancers than before is because the population is ageing overall. And cancer is an age-related disease. Siddhartha Mukherjee Read Quote
