The Politics of Cancer Revisited

Rating:
Summary: A masterful documentation of life-saving truths about cancer
Review: Could it possibly be true that: (1) Cancer is preventable? (2) Government agencies and the cancer establishment, with their false optimism, their emphasis on "damage control," and their opposition to non-toxic alternative treatments, are doing far more harm than good in the "war on cancer"? (3) Each individual, armed with the right knowledge, can significantly reduce the chances of ever getting cancer?

Dr. Epstein fully documents these truths with great force and clarity. Having read the book, it would be difficult not to believe these truths, to fully take them in, and to act accordingly.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe this is Non-fiction!
Review: Dr. Epstein manages to prove the saying that "fiction mimics relality." Only this time the "story" is horrifyingly close to home. As Dr. Epstein outlines the mis-deeds of the Cancer Industry, one feels as if they are reading a conspiracy novel. However, when one contamplates the fact that this book is non-fiction, it is more chilling than even the best conpiracy fiction.

Rating:
Summary: We can stop losing the "War Against Cancer"
Review: I can't remember when a book has cheered me the way this one has. As a longtime worker in the field of alternative cancer treatment, and one who has undergone his own battle with this disease, I rejoice that a voice of authority has finally stated the truth in loud, ringing tones -- the emperor has no clothes! The reiterated claim by our government and its associated medical professionals that we are "winning the war against cancer" is simply not true. And these stalwarts in the Cancer Establishment are not the selfless servants of humanity they have been portraying themselves as, either. Their ranks are shot through with cronyism, conflicts of interest, and subservience to the giant drug companies.

Masterfully, exhaustively, irrefutably, Dr. Epstein exposes this dirty little game that has been snowing the American public for the last 25 years. And he makes a powerful case that, in the field of cancer as in no other, an ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure. Cancer, once contracted, is generally a very tough disease to treat successfully. But, in very many cases, it can be prevented by avoiding known cancer-causing agents in the environment, in the workplace, and in consumer products.

Not only is "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" inspiring in its revelations and recommendations. It is a magnificent reference tool, one I have put on my shelf for ready access whenever I want to know if a particular cosmetic, food additive, drug, work setting -- or part of the country -- is carcinogenic and therefore to be avoided.

Rating:
Summary: Leading cancer expert urges reform of "Cancer Establishment"
Review: In 1978 the Sierra Club Books landmark "The Politics of Cancer" documented the relation between increasing cancer rates and avoidable exposures to environmental and occupational carcinogens, and the culpability of the petrochemical industry. "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" analyzes subsequent public policy and scientific developments over the past two decades and charges the cancer establishment -- the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society -- with major responsibility for losing the winnable war against cancer because of its, not always benign, indifference to prevention, coupled with misleading claims for major advances in treatment and pervasive conflicts of interest.

Part I of "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" is the complete text of the 1978 "Politics of Cancer," which traces the shocking history of how the war against cancer was lost -- not irretrievably, but definitely lost -- during the Nixon and Carter Administrations by a number of lethally wrongheaded policy decisions of the American cancer establishment.

Part II picks up the story with the coming of the Reagan administration and brings it forward to the present -- brilliantly untangling a web of high-level obfuscation, duplicity, conflict of interest, greed, and outright criminality.

As an exposé, "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" is a stunner. Dr. Epstein is not just one of the world's leading cancer experts. He is a fighter. His persistence in carrying the fight to the cancer establishment in the face of their strong-arm tactics defending their many grievous mistakes, makes for a stirring narrative. And his fight is no longer a lonely one. Scores of highly-credentialed experts in public health and cancer prevention have now rallied to the cause of forcing a radical reform of the National Cancer Institute and bringing about a real turning in the tide of the still-winnable war against cancer. All this makes for very exciting -- and very hopeful -- reading, especially in the field of cancer, where fear and despair too often are all that the ordinary individual and the individual family end up with after the political and professional posturing and hype have had their full innings.

But "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" is more than an exposé. As incredible as such a wildly hopeful notion sounds, it is a fact that Dr. Samuel Epstein has a workable plan for defeating the scourge of cancer, in America and worldwide. Granted, implementation of this plan would cost a lot of money to bring about the removal of sufficient poisons from our food, our drinking water, and our industrial workplaces. And a number of vested interests at high levels would have to be effectively challenged and defeated. But this much can -- and must -- be demanded of our enlightened democracy, whose citizens are being killed off by the disease of cancer at the rate of one in four.

The important things to bear in mind about Dr. Epstein's plan are that it is realistic and it is authoritative. And, although it has been put together by scientists, it can be readily understood and carried forward by ordinary citizens -- at the individual and family level as well as at the higher levels of industry and government. This is the plan of individual prevention and effective political action spelled out in "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited."

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant and timely exposé of cancer politics
Review: This book will likely change the way you see the world. Not only is the tripling of cancer rates in this century directly related to environmental and industrial conditions, but the same players also control the huge and hugely profitable cancer industry which has grown up arount it. Meanwhile promising nontoxic alternative treatments have been excluded from the playing field controlled by this oligopoly of self-interested players, many of whom are supposed to be the guardians of the public health. Epstein documents all this impeccably, but also lets citizens know what we can do to change the system. Highest recommendation. A must-read.