Why I wrote A Cure for All

I am not an author by trade or nature. In fact, I wish I had listened more closely in my English classes in high school and college. But I do like to read a good book. Unfortunately, like many people, I have precious little time to read fiction. Most of my pleasure reading comes in airports, on airplanes, or on vacation, sitting on the beach. I currently have seven or eight books on my shelf that have been partially read. Typically, I begin reading a new book on an airplane hoping I will want to continue reading it while on vacation. Unfortunately, most of the time, the book never reaches that point. Why don’t I finish it? Simply because I get bored. This is true whether it is a well-known or a more obscure writer (some of the best-known authors are the worst). I find that about one novel in twenty piques my interest. Most of the time, I start reading and fall asleep before the airplane’s wheels come up. I long for the one book that I begin reading as the plane is taking off, and then the next thing I hear is the captain telling me to fasten my seatbelt for landing (a bit of an exaggeration, but I think you know what I mean).

This is what I had in mind when I sat down to write A Cure for All. Hopefully it is a quick and relatively easy read. I wanted it to be a book that once started, would be hard to put down (most of the people I asked to read the book before it was published said that they read it in several sittings—not because they had to, but because they wanted to). Beyond that, in a good novel, I think it is critical to identify with the lead characters; they should be people with style and/or skills I would like to have or someone I can admire for their strength of character. In addition, there should be a lot of action, starting from the first chapter. The story should flow logically, without too many characters, twists and turns, or technical data to remember. And finally, I like a surprise ending … something that makes me think about the book and where I had a clue to the twist. Obviously, you will be the judge as to whether or not I have accomplished this.

The subject matter of the book, a cancer cure, is near and dear to me. Seven years ago, at age 51, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer (there is another section of the Website that contains more about prostate cancer). Fifty-one is a young age for a man to develop prostate cancer. However, the simple truth is that most of us will face cancer at some time in our life … either ourselves or someone we love … sooner or later. As I researched the story (the facts in the story are taken from published articles), I found that 6.9 million people die each year from cancer and, next to heart disease, it is the leading killer. As stated in A Cure for All, in 1971, Richard Nixon declared “war on cancer”, allocating 100 million dollars for research. Yet today, after spending billions, we still do not have a cure, and I believe there is little prospect of having a cure in my lifetime. I, like everyone else, have friends and family members who have died wondering why in this great country of ours, where we can send men to the moon, we cannot find a cure for such a devastating disease!

Then there are those who believe that maybe there has been a cure for cancer found. The theory is that it would be extremely costly to the medical establishment in the form of revenues lost from treating cancer and, therefore, the cure has been withheld from the market. While that is an interesting conspiracy theory, I think the truth is that it is an incredibly expensive and grueling journey to bring a new drug to the market. One only has to look at the requirements for testing and approval to appreciate the difficulties. I have read that neither penicillin nor aspirin would meet the requirements today because it would take thousands of volumes of research and because too many people would die from adverse reactions. Think about the implications of never having the benefit of penicillin … many of us would not be here today. Then look at the many lawsuits that are filed against drug manufacturers. It seems that if a drug is approved for sale, and then later it is found to have a negative impact on some number of people, no matter how many people it helped, the maker will be sued.

Now, I am not defending the drug companies or gross negligence on their part. However, it is obvious that we need to find a better way to protect the public from dangerous drugs, while at the same time ensure that drug manufacturers have an acceptable level of protection from catastrophic lawsuits. As I mentioned in the book, in 1996, 53 new cancer drugs were approved for the market. Last year, 17 were approved. This would indicate that many drug companies have become reluctant to produce new cancer drugs. It seems that we should be making it easier to bring drugs to the market, not harder.

One final note about cancer: it is a sad fact that many people leave the United States to find alternative treatments for cancer; not always because the chances of a cure are high, but because they have lost faith in our medical system, or in many cases, our medical system has given up on them.

I did not write A Cure for All for money. Rather, it is my attempt to write a book that will entertain you, while planting a small seed about a serious problem we all face. If I have accomplished either or both, the result was worth the effort.

Links:
www.cancerfacts.com
www.ascendfoundation.org (Imagine a World Without Cancer)
www.nationmaster.com (cancer statistics)
www.money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune (Search-The War On Cancer)
www.preventcancer.com/press/books/poc.htm (The Politics of Cancer)