Linda, me, and the Childs Glacier
At grand dauther Amanda's wedding, 2011
Clearly,
immunotherapy is the medical topic of the day.
You can tell that must be so by the frequent publication of books on the
subject. For instance, just a few months
ago I reviewed a book entitled An Elegant
Defense, which I didn’t like very well.
Despite its rather misleading title (I thought it referred to the New
England Patriots), it was an attempt to explain immunotherapy to the layperson,
taking an historical and anecdotal approach.
As the archetypical layperson – I wasn’t very impressed. Here is my review:
Now comes
another such book: The Breakthrough, by Charles Graebner. It attempts to cover the same ground, in the
same way: explain the new science of
immunotherapy by taking an historical approach, with lots of (interesting)
human anecdotes. It has the advantage
over its predecessor in being far less irritating – if you can get past the
first chapter with your patience still intact.
I learned a little from Graebner’s book, but not a lot. I can’t recommend it.
What I am
waiting for is a book with a title something like Immunotherapy for Dummies, with chapter titles such as:
The innate immune system, and how it
works.
The adaptive immune system and how it
works.
How does a cancer cell protect itself
from the immune system?
What are tumor- infiltrating
lymphocytes (TIL), and how can they be used to combat cancer?
How do checkpoint-inhibitors work?
What, precisely, is CRISPR, and how
does it work?
How does CAR-T do its thing?
And finally:
Is there any hope of using these immunotherapeutic
tricks against solid and/or metastatic cancers – especially ovarian?
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