Cancer-gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War

by Samuel S. Epstein

Award-winning author, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., whose 1978 book ""The Politics of Cancer"" shook the political establishment by showing how the federal government had been corrupted by industrial polluters, has written a book that is sure to be of equal consequence. "" How to Win the Losing Cancer War"" is a groundbreaking new book. It warns that, contrary to three decades of promises, we are losing the winnable war against cancer, and that the hand-in-glove generals of the federal National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the private ""nonprofit"" American Cancer Society (ACS) have betrayed us.These institutions, Epstein alleges, have spent tens of billions of taxpayer and charity dollars primarily targeting silver-bullet cures, strategies that have largely failed, while virtually ignoring strategies for preventing cancer in the first place. As a result, cancer rates have escalated to epidemic proportions, now striking nearly one in every two men, and more than one in every three women. This translates into approximately 50 percent more cancer in men, and 20 percent more cancer in women over the course of just one generation.

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2005

Reviews

[Shin Furuya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of the political economy of cancer. It's amazing to imagine how much courage he has to publish a book on this topic. It's an important exposé of the reality.



Although, most writings in each chapters are while ago (the book was published in 2005) thus, most data is outdated, still a good backgrounder for much politicized war against cancer and its relationship with industrial chemicals in the US with detailed analysis of the US 'cancer establishment' and reality check of the history of war on cancer since Nixon.



As a prominent scientist/advocate, Epstein summarizes and explains why NCI and ACS has been neglecting risks (and clear evidences) of industrial chemicals and their impact on cancer rates.



The book has explanation of recent regulatory efforts such as REACH. It's especially helpful to read comparative analysis of original REACH in 2001 and how it got weakened and undermined by the massive industry lobbying, particularly by the US chemical industry. Some of the key clauses (requirements) of REACH had removed in 2003's revised version.



Further, the precise analysis of hidden risks of food related carcinogen and issues around the industry-biased risk analysis helped to understand the landscape of the industry controlled (or manufactured) scientific risk analysis on chemicals.



Hope there will be fully-updated edition with new data and regulatory info.

[Catherine Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way that this book is written i would almost calssify it as a self help book. obviously just by looking at the title you can tell that its a very political book as well as heavily critical of whats going on today with different cancers for men and women. Cancer-Gate tells you the reader how you can fight back by arming yourself with information that you need to protect yourself. alot of the companies are not so reliable since their pay check relies on what kind of reports they give and even looking at different aspects of the world we know things are currupt as much as people want to believe its not. Ultimately this book is giving the reader the tools that she or he needs in order to become an activist in the war against cancer.