When my wife was diagnosed with cancer I started to read up on a subject that I knew too little about. I was to read over 200 books — and none of them was the book we needed to help us make sensible decisions — so I wrote Cancer: The Complete Recovery Guide (the big book) and Cancer Recovery Guide: 15 Alternative and Complementary Strategies for Restoring Health (the little book). My reading led me to some books that I believe every cancer patient, and family member of a cancer patient, should read. Below are 11 that I think you will find most useful.
by Ralph W. Moss
This book is a masterwork. If you think science is all about the rigorous pursuit of a cancer cure — let nothing get in the way — then you need to read this book. We get the politics and maneuvering. Ralph Moss used to work for a major cancer center so this is very much an insider's book.
by James P. Carter
This is another wide ranging survey of the ways in which alternative therapies that may be beneficial to cancer patients have been suppressed by the medical establishment. Written by a doctor, this book 'presents names, events and facts'.
by Jerome P. Kassirer M.D.
This book by a Harvard professor and ex-editor of a major medical journal tells you that all is not well in the corridors of medical ethics.
by Max Gerson
Gerson's story is a tragic and important one. Having fled Nazi Germany, where he had been a leading doctor — well-known for his nutritional approaches to metabolic conditions such as lupus and diabetes — he was then prevented from practicing this approach against cancer.
by Linus Pauling, Ewan Cameron
Linus Pauling was described once by another Nobel prize winner, James Watson the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, as the intellectual equal of Newton and Einstein. In this book Linus Pauling describes the work he did with Dr. Ewan Cameron in a Scottish hospital.
by Gerald B. Dermer
Cancer is an 'immortal cell' because it cannot kill itself, as normal cells do. Dermer was a hospital pathologist who worked on living cancer tissue straight out of the body. His results and conclusions tended to be diametrically opposed to those arrived at by 'cancer researchers' doing test tube work. This book is a critique of the entire business of cancer research.
by Lawrence LeShan
In this book, and in his earlier one — You Can Fight For Your Life — LeShan focuses on the importance of dealing with the emotions — and argues that resolving emotional conflicts can, on their own, have immense healing benefits.
by David J. Fraham
Anne Frahm was weeks away from death from cancer. She had everything her orthodox doctors could throw at her — including a bone marrow transplant. She then turned to the nutritional approaches and claims she was cured in 5 weeks. She went on to live another ten years mostly cancer free.
by Norman Cousins
This is not a book about cancer, but the story of how one patient who suffered a complete metabolic physical breakdown took his own treatment out of the hands of his doctors and how he cured himself. An important document in survivorship — a must-read.
by Dean Black
This is a thin volume but the thinking is massive but expressed with clarity and simplicity; each chapter is a monument to an idea. This has long been one of my favorite texts.
Flashlight Worthy
Recommending books so good, they'll keep you up past your bedtime. more...
About Jonathan Chamberlain
I've written over 40 published books – both non-fiction and fiction - and founded two charities for children with developmental disabilities. For further details of some of my current books go to Blacksmith Books or FightingCancer.com.
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