Customer Reviews

The Cure of Childhood Leukemia: Into the Age of Miracles

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Childhood leukemia survival rates have increased dramatically in the last 20 years and this book gives historical perspective of significant treatment breakthroughs and scientific developments through the stories of several doctors and researchers. Excellent reference book for students and researchers, less applicable for medical consumers who may find current treatment-oriented books more useful.

I came across this book while sitting in my daughter's hospital room still inundated with the news that she had childhhod leukemia. It was there amid the pamphlets and literature that symbolized the "dump" our lives had just taken.

I picked it up one sleepless night and, by the time I finished, I knew that my duaghter had every chance of surviving. We faced her two and a half year treatment with a new understanding that we were members of a group of children, families, medical practitioners and researchers who make a difference.

That was five years ago. This book set the tone for our struggles and victories large and small. It gave us perspective. It gave us hope and it gave us gratitude for all of the efforts that, ulitmately, gave my daughter back to me -- healthy and strong.

A fascinating and well wrtten accounting of the incredible story behind the conquering of much of childhood leukemia. These are real hero's stories.

As a mother of 3, one of which has ALL Acute Lymphoblastic leukaemia, and a researcher, I want parents to know that there is more out there than this author offers. The tragedy is a moral one, while they have been using our children as guinee pigs for 30 years they have also shut out all other promising research of less harmful treatments that have shown good results. Only "inefficent" cyto toxins have been promoted and invested in. Fishbowl mentality not serving humanity but serving Big Pharma profits. My 3yr old has nearly died from cyto toxic chemo and this treatment predisposes patients to multiple other cancers in future. Cyto-toxins may be an appropriate first aid but as a prolonged treatment they are harmful in hidden and devistating ways. Hippocrates said "first thout should do no harm", perhaps looking outside the square as they did to find quantum physics, would be more successful and less devistating to families. We have lost everything due to the treatment alone. Alternatives provide more promise and better results but people are frightened and guilted into taking chemo, by MDs, when there are more efficent treatments for the long term with less harmful side effects. THis publication is good for the historical point, showing the investment since the great wars in cyto-toxins. But many competing and more successful treatments have been suppressed due to this treatment. Interestingly chemo has extreemly poor results with any other cancer and yet it is used universally in all cancers. Not exactly commonsense. Multinationals suppress our technology to enable continued profit from fossil fuels and the same authorities suppress competing research in this industry because they don't want to lose market share or admitt the limitations of the cyto-toxic industry. Parents are not given choice in this treatment and the population based statistics used do not cater for individual needs. It has supprised me how little medical professionals know about cutting edge research and how quickly new breakthroughs get lost or dissapear. MD's are only as good as the information provided to them and can the source of information be trusted given the cold war approach to cyto-toxic alternatives. The fishy smell is the economics. Ignorance and economics are putting our children at risk in prevention and cure. A Fact. Cyto-toxins cannot proport to be a cure or miracle, too many children have died from cyto toxic effects and experimentation that continues today. THe crime is in not looking beyond the first aid approach, beyond cyto-toxins, to focus on harm minimisation and treatments that are more efficient than current drugs. THis book is written by someone that is entrenched in the fishbowl mentality and has only painted part of the historical picture. Again he is only as good as the information provided to him. I am a researcher, I know what I am speaking of. Bring parents choice and harm minimisation or get off the podium. It took Medical professionals 200 years before they allowed Vitamin c to become a mainstream treatment of scurvey, shunning the proporter as a quack. OUr children are still dying from ignorance in 2005.