NY Academy of Science Talk on Cancer by Dr. Siddharta Mukherjee

I attended a great talk by Dr. Mukherjee, author of the new book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. I attended part of his talk, but liked
what he said about medicine encompassing everything from psychology to nanotechnology. I believe in integrating ideas.

Some MD/PhD students later told me that he said that he met a man he needed to meet in India, when it was more logical they would have met at Harvard. That may be synchronicity. For instance, I like balancing science with religion, synchronicity, intention etc.I thought when I was an undergraduate that medical school education needs to encompass genetics, and that it would take years to do so, especially in such a developing field, and alternative medicine.

Some interesting points are that diet probably affects some cancer not all. As I thought, the extreme of dieting or eating organic in order to prevent cancer is a not a cure-all strategy. In addition, there are some links to certain cancers and obesity but not certain links from obesity to all cancers. It was mentioned that one twin studied got cancer while another did not get it. there are spontaneous mutations. Unfortunately, cancer cells are usually not found until there are several in a tumor. It would be great to find a cell as soon as it turns cancerous and pinpoint the processes more.

I have not read the book, but it encompasses stories of many cancer patients and the history of cancer from what was found in early hieroglyphics. It is interesting how science and medicine, at a certain level, are very creative, and one can use both left and right brain for ideas and cures.