Vincent T. DeVita, Jr.

As a young doctor working at the NIH in the early 1960s, Dr. DeVita came under the influence of Tom Frei and Jay Freireich, who were pushing the boundaries of multiple drug chemotherapy to fight cancer. Freireich's "never give up" approach burned deeply into DeVita's mind. DeVita applied the multiple drug approach used against leukemia to lymphoma, and achieved results that he described as "curing" cancer in many of his patients, to the distress of others in the oncology field. Always an show more optimist, DeVita was always on the lookout for approaches that would extend the lives of his patients, in the hope that the state of medicine would bring forth new treatment options. He was often correct, although the treatment options often were extremely difficult to access, due to regulatory barriers. DeVita rails against those barriers, especially the ones erected by the FDA, arguing that the rules for drugs for near-death cancer patients should differ from those applied to chronic diseases such as arthritis or diabetes. DeVita also attacks cancer surgeons and radiologists as being slow to pick up on the newest treatment options -- such as adjuvant chemotherapy in conjunction with breast cancer surgery -- and suggests that part of the motivation may have been financial. All cancer patients would want a doctor like DeVita fighting for them -- a doctor who knows which cancer centers have the most advanced treatment approaches for the specific cancers they have, and also is savvy enough to figure out how to get admission to the promising but not yet FDA-approved treatments. show less

A fascinating book that is part memoir and part history of the treatment of cancer from the 1940’s to the present. Devita was a medical student during the infancy of chemotherapy, and subsequently developed the first successful chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A fascinating story of someone in the trenches advocating for his patients and working tirelessly for cures.

Despite being a little dry reading in parts, this is an exceptional behind-the-scenes look at the War on Cancer by one who fought in its trenches. It is a book that looks at where we came from, where we are now and looks to a promising future if we simply fund and allow cancer researchers to do what they do best. This is a book for our legislators and those in the FDA to read and understand so they can assist in this effort, as well as a book for everyone concerned about cancer. I have show more gained tremendous insights into what cancer is and why there is hope for a better outcome every day. show less

Reference QZ 200 C21537 2015