by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

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The Emperor of All Maladies (2010)

A Biography of Cancer

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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One-Sentence Summary

The Emperor of All Maladies is a rich and deep biography of cancer, from its first documented appearance to our modern battles to understand and cure humanity's (current) second biggest killer - by physician, biologist and author, Siddhartha Mukherjee. (571 pages)

Contents

1. One-Sentence Summary

2. The Emperor of All Maladies Summary

3. The Emperor of All Maladies Contents

4. Best The Emperor of All Maladies Quotes

6. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Note: This The Emperor of All Maladies summary is part of an ongoing project to summarise the Best Health Books and Best Self Help Books of all time.

Note: This The Emperor of All Maladies summary is a stub. I'll write a full summary later. For now, you'll find enough meta-data here to help you decide if it's worth reading the book.

The Emperor of All Maladies Summary

This publisher’s blurb comes from the Simon & Schuster paperback edition of The Emperor of All Maladies…

“The Emperor of All Maladies 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.

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.”

The Emperor of All Maladies Contents

The Emperor of All Maladies has 8 main chapters…

Prologue
Part One: “Of blacke cholor, without boyling”
Part Two: An Impatient War
Part Three: “Will you turn me out if I can’t get better?”
Part Four: Prevention Is the Cure
Part Five: “A Distorted Version of Our Normal Selves”
Part Six: The Fruits of Long Endeavours
Atossa’s War

Best The Emperor of All Maladies Quotes

These The Emperor of All Maladies quotes come from The Art of Living's ever-growing central library of thoughts, anecdotes, notes, and inspirational quotes.

"History repeats, but science reverberates."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"“The art of medicine is long,” Hippocrates tells us, “and life is short; opportunity fleeting; the experiment perilous; judgment flawed.”"

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"It remains an astonishing, disturbing fact that in America - a nation where nearly every new drug is subjected to rigorous scrutiny as a potential carcinogen, and even the bare hint of a substance's link to cancer ignites a firestorm of public hysteria and media anxiety - one of the most potent and common carcinogens known to humans can be freely bought and sold at every corner store for a few dollars."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"But the story of leukemia - the story of cancer - isn't the story of doctors who struggle and survive, moving from institution to another. It is the story of patients who struggle and survive, moving from on embankment of illness to another. Resilience, inventiveness, and survivorship - qualities often ascribed to great physicians - are reflected qualities, emanating first from those who struggle with illness and only then mirrored by those who treat them. If the history of medicine is told through the stories of doctors, it is because their contributions stand in place of the more substantive heroism of their patients."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"Cancer was not disorganized chromosomal chaos. It was organized chromosomal chaos."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"Down to their innate molecular core, cancer cells are hyperactive, survival-endowed, scrappy, fecund, inventive copies of ourselves."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"In 2005, a man diagnosed with multiple myeloma asked me if he would be alive to watch his daughter graduate from high school in a few months. In 2009, bound to a wheelchair, he watched his daughter graduate from college. The wheelchair had nothing to do with his cancer. The man had fallen down while coaching his youngest son's baseball team."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"Cancer's life is a recapitulation of the body's life, its existence a pathological mirror of our own."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"A model is a lie that helps you see the truth."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

"Cancer 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. To confront cancer is to encounter a parallel species, one perhaps more adapted to survival than even we are."

- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

Read More: 5 Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies

Enjoyed this The Emperor of All Maladies summary? You might enjoy the rest of the books on these lists of the Best Health Books and Best Self Help Books of all time.

And in the meantime...

Here are 5 top books like The Emperor of All Maladies...

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: Being Mortal

1. Being Mortal - Atul Gawande (FREE Summary)

Medicine and What Matters in the End

Being Mortal is an uncomfortable yet enlightening exploration of how treating terminal disease (especially linked to ageing) as a purely extend-life-at-all-costs medical problem is destroying the final moments of our lives - by surgeon and best selling author, Atul Gawande.

Published 2014 // 282 pages // Rated 4.4 over 155,700 reviews on Goodreads

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: Why We Sleep

2. Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker (FREE Summary)

Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Why We Sleep is a fascinating and accessible guide to what sleep is, why sleep matters and how to optimise your sleep habits to live longer, feel happier and set your life up for success - by sleep scientist and best-selling author, Matthew Walker.

Published 2017 // 368 pages // Rated 4.4 over 125,800 reviews on Goodreads

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: How Not to Die

3. How Not to Die - Michael Greger (FREE Summary)

Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

How Not to Die is a deeply researched and compelling primer on the promise and importance of whole food plant-based nutrition in preventing and reversing disease - by medical doctor and nutrition expert, Michael Greger.

Published 2015 // 576 pages // Rated 4.4 over 31,000 reviews on Goodreads

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: Born to Run

4. Born to Run - Christopher McDougall (FREE Summary)

A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Born to Run takes takes running back to its roots in this critically acclaimed analysis of evolution, injury and recovery that is filled with compelling insights, great story telling and practical tips - by best-selling author and journalist, Christopher McDougall.

Published 2009 // 287 pages // Rated 4.3 over 186,300 reviews on Goodreads

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: The Body

5. The Body - Bill Bryson (FREE Summary)

A Guide for Occupants

The Body is a fantastically-written and awe-inspiring 23-chapter tour through the 30 trillion cells that (literally) make you who you are - by best-selling author, Bill Bryson.

Published 2019 // 450 pages // Rated 4.3 over 58,200 reviews on Goodreads

Books Like The Emperor of All Maladies: The Obesity Code

6. The Obesity Code - Jason Fung (FREE Summary)

Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

The Obesity Code gives an amazing look at how the body uses food to create the perfect conditions for obesity and how to disrupt the cycle to create a healthier future - by kidney disease specialist, best-selling author and MD, Jason Fung.

Published 2016 // 328 pages // Rated 4.4 over 24,200 reviews on Goodreads

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