In the 1950s, ninety-five percent of patients with Hodgkin's disease, a
cancer of lymph tissue which afflicts young adults, died. Today most are
cured, due mainly to the efforts of Dr. Henry Kaplan. Henry Kaplan and
the Story of Hodgkin's Disease explores the life of this multifaceted,
internationally known radiation oncologist, called a "saint" by some, a
"malignant son of a bitch" by others. Kaplan's passion to cure cancer
dominated his life and helped him weather the controversy that marked
each of his innovations, but it extracted a high price, leaving
casualties along the way. Most never knew of his family struggles, his
ill-fated love affair with Stanford University, or the humanitarian
efforts that imperiled him.
Today, Kaplan ranks as one of the foremost physician-scientists in the
history of cancer medicine. In this book Charlotte Jacobs gives us the
first account of a remarkable man who changed the face of cancer therapy
and the history of a once fatal, now curable, cancer. She presents a
dual drama --the biography of this renowned man who called cancer his
"Moby Dick" and the history of Hodgkin's disease, the malignancy he set
out to annihilate. The book recounts the history of Hodgkin's disease,
first described in 1832: the key figures, the serendipitous discoveries
of radiation and chemotherapy, the improving cure rates, the
unanticipated toxicities. The lives of individual patients, bold enough
to undergo experimental therapies, lend poignancy to the successes and
failures.
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