A leading cancer specialist tells the compelling stories of three
adult leukemia patients, shedding new light on the disease itself and
the drugs developed to treat it
When you are told that you have leukemia, your world stops. Your brain
can't function. You are asked to make decisions about treatment almost
immediately, when you are not in your right mind. And yet you pull
yourself together and start asking questions. Beside you is your doctor,
whose job it is to solve the awful puzzle of bone marrow gone wrong. The
two of you are in it together. In When Blood Breaks Down, Mikkael
Sekeres, a leading cancer specialist, takes readers on the journey that
patient and doctor travel together.
Sekeres, who writes regularly for the "Well" section of The New York
Times, tells the compelling stories of three people who receive
diagnoses of adult leukemia within hours of each other: Joan, a
48-year-old surgical nurse, a caregiver who becomes a patient; David, a
68-year-old former factory worker who bows to his family's wishes and
pursues the most aggressive treatment; and Sarah, a 36-year-old pregnant
woman who must decide whether to undergo chemotherapy and put her fetus
at risk. We join the intimate conversations between Sekeres and his
patients, and we watch as he teaches trainees. Along the way, Sekeres
also explores leukemia in its different forms and the development of
drugs to treat it--describing, among many other fascinating details, the
invention of the bone marrow transplant (first performed experimentally
on beagles) and a treatment that targets the genetics of leukemia.
The lessons to be learned from leukemia, Sekeres shows, are not merely
medical; they teach us about courage and grace and defying the odds.
