Cancer Crossings - (Culture and Politics of Health Care Work) by Tim Wendel (Hardcover)

About the Book

When Eric Wendel was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1966, the survival rate was 10 percent. Today, it is 90 percent. Even as politicians call for a "Cancer Moonshot," this accomplishment remains a pinnacle in cancer research.The author's daughter, then a medical student at Georgetown Medical School, told her father about this...

Book Synopsis

When Eric Wendel was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1966, the survival rate was 10 percent. Today, it is 90 percent. Even as politicians call for a "Cancer Moonshot," this accomplishment remains a pinnacle in cancer research.

The author's daughter, then a medical student at Georgetown Medical School, told her father about this amazing success story. Tim Wendel soon discovered that many of the doctors at the forefront of this effort cared for his brother at Roswell Park in Buffalo, New York. Wendel went in search of this extraordinary group, interviewing Lucius Sinks, James Holland, Donald Pinkel, and others in the field. If there were a Mount Rushmore for cancer research, they would be on it.

Despite being ostracized by their medical peers, these doctors developed modern-day chemotherapy practices and invented the blood centrifuge machine, helping thousands of children live longer lives. Part family memoir and part medical narrative, Cancer Crossings explores how the Wendel family found the courage to move ahead with their lives. They learned to sail on Lake Ontario, cruising across miles of open water together, even as the campaign against cancer changed their lives forever.

Review Quotes

Both informative and compassionate, Wendel's book celebrates his brother's life and serves as a testament to the commitment of doctors who went above and beyond expectations to transform a death sentence into a survivable disease. A sensitive and thoughtful excavation of a painful period in the author's life.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Responds brilliantly to Sontag's decades-old call for new metaphors, new ways of imagining cancer.... Wendel approaches an emotional and highly fraught topic with gentleness and compassion for the reader.

-- "Washington Independent Review of Books"

This fine book combines dual pleasures for readers: it's a heartfelt excavation of a painful stretch in the author's life and a history of a seminal period in oncology.... This compelling book is highly recommended for readers of The ASCO Post.

-- "The ASCO Post"

About the Author

A writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, Tim Wendel is the author of Summer of '68, Castro's Curveball, Cancer Crossings, and High Heat, which was an Editor's Choice selection by The New York Times Book Review. He lives outside of Washington, D.C.