One Renegade Cell: How Cancer Begins

Robert A. Weinberg

"...[G]iven all the trillions of cells in the human body, is it not a wonder that cancer does not erupt often during our long lives?"

"The great majority of dietary mutagens are likely to be natural components of our food rather than man-made contaminants. [Bruce] Ames {a genetic researcher] has documented dozens of natural foodstuffs, from brewed coffee to celery stalks to bean sprouts, the contain high concentrations of natural, highly potent, mutagens."

"While we have described a number of genetic differences that distinguish normal and cancer cells, these mutations affect only a minute fraction (less than 0.01 percent) of the genome."

"About forty percent of the current population of the United States will develop cancer at some point in their lives....By following a low-fat, low-meat diet and avoiding tobacco, and American can cut his or her risk of dying from cancer nearly in half, resulting in a risk of about one in ten."

"Given enough time, cancer will strike every human body."

This book should be utterly terrifying. And it is, until the last ten pages or so. Weinberg takes us on a systematic journey through cancer and the history of cancer research, spending the first ninety percent of this slim volume explaining to us exactly how and why cancer cells become cancer cells. Everything he says leads us to one inescapable conclusion: cancer is inevitable. (He says many times the leading cause of cancer in today's society is simply the fact that humans live longer than they used to; when the average life expectancy is thirty-five, most types of cancer-- which start being a risk right around that time-- aren't going to be a big problem.) He falls into a trap in the last two chapters, though, a trap partly inspired by a seemingly desperate need to provide a light at the end of the tunnel and partly inspired by a misplaced sense of political correctness. After a hundred forty pages of telling us cancer is inevitable and telling us that forty percent of us will get cancer no matter what, he then goes on to say that avoiding meat and tobacco will cut our chances of dying from cancer (not getting it, dying from it-- note the sleight-of-hand there. Weinberg says not far above this passage that approximately half of those who get cancer will die from it.) to one in ten. Think about that. If you never smoke and never eat red meat, your chances of dying from cancer are one in ten. By doing things that many consider thorough body abuse, your chances of dying from cancer double-- one in five. It doesn't take a genius to see that perhaps it's a good idea to but out the cheesesteaks and cigarettes, but it doesn't take a genius to see that whether you smoke and eat red meat or not, you're still a walking time bomb, and there's not a thing you can do about it, either. When celery-- otherwise the perfect food-- contains "high concentrations of natural, highly potent, mutagens," is there really anything you can do? Nope. And he goes on to say "nope" in the strongest possible language by telling us that eventually everyone will get cancer-- it's just that sixty percent of us in America die before it has a chance to really get a good grip on us. And right about there, you realize the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an oncoming train.

Would have been another Basic Books four-and-a-half star science special without the obviously specious moralizing at the end.