Racing to a Cure: A Cancer Victim Refuses Chemotherapy and Finds Tomorrow's Cures in Today's Scientific Laboratories [Hardcover]

Neil Ruzic (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0252028678 | ISBN-13: 978-0252028670 | Publication Date: October 2003 | Edition: 1

"Racing to a Cure" is not a cancer memoir. It is a cancer cure memoir. In 1998, Neil Ruzic was diagnosed with mantle-cell lymphoma, the deadliest cancer of the lymph system, whose spread is reaching epidemic levels in the U.S. and Europe. Instead of following recommended courses of chemotherapy and radiation, he took control of his treatment by investigating cures being developed in the nation's cancer-research laboratories. Although chemotherapy harms the immune system and is increasingly demonstrated to be an ineffective long-term cure for the vast majority of cancers, it remains the standard treatment for most cancer patients. Ruzic, a former scientific magazine publisher and originator of a science center, refused to accept this status quo, and instead plunged into the world of cutting-edge treatments, exploring the frontiers of cancer science with revolutionary results. Ruzic went on the offensive: visiting scores of laboratories, gathering information, talking to researchers, and effectively becoming his own patient-care advocate. This book presents his findings. A scathing critique of the chemotherapy culture as well as unscientific "alternative" therapies, the book endorses state-of-the-art molecularly based technologies, making it an illuminating and necessary read for anyone interested in cancer research, especially patients and their families, and physicians. Neil Ruzic was expected to die within two years of his initial diagnosis. Five years later he has been declared cancer-free and considers himself cured.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In September 1998 publisher and scientific journalist Ruzic was diagnosed with mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL), an aggressive cancer of the lymph system. Even for an otherwise healthy man in his upper sixties, this was worse than a death sentence. He faced a prognosticated further life-span of 18 months, and that would be made insufferable by side effects from the prescribed chemotherapy. For Ruzic, a self-defined "change agent," consuming large quantities of chemical poisons only to allow cancer still to claim his life was unacceptable. In his opinion, physicians too easily rely upon what is considered the gold standard of cancer treatment, chemical therapy. His scientific mind was certain that there were other, perhaps more effective and certainly less deadly treatment options, if one could find them. He made finding a cure for his cancer a full-time job, one in which he emptied entire file cabinets only to refill them with volumes of new research. He discovered that an abundance of biological therapies is being developed in the scientific, rather than the strictly medical, arena; and he reports that those biotherapies and vaccines are proving highly effective for cancer treatment. His well-written memoir recounts a four-year odyssey that took him from splenectomy and diagnosis, through successfully ditching chemotherapy in favor of biotherapy, and to what he boldly calls a cure. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"In September 1998 publisher and scientific journalist Ruzic was diagnosed with mantle-cell lymphoma... He faced a prognosticated further life-span of 18 months, and that would be made insufferable by side effects from the prescribed chemotherapy... His scientific mind was certain that there were other, perhaps more effective and certainly less deadly treatment options, if one could find them. He made finding a cure for his cancer a full-time job... He discovered that an abundance of biological therapies is being developed in the scientific, rather than the strictly medical arena, and he reports that those biotherapies and vaccines are proving highly effective for cancer treatment. His well-written memoir recounts a four-year odyssey that took him from splenectomy and diagnosis, through successfully ditching chemotherapy in favor of biotherapy, and to what he boldly calls a cure." -- Booklist (starred review) "In this extraordinary book, we encounter the experience and science of cancer through the lens of a delightful and sophisticated writer. Exploring the landscape of American research landscape with intelligence and passion, Neil Ruzic leads us to the important and surprising conclusion that the immune system is a central agent for cancer cure. This insight frames important new ways that patients and their families should understand and select their cancer care, and new research and clinical priorities for scientists, physicians, and policy makers." --Dr. Jonathan Braun, Immunologist, UCLA "Ruzic's experience in fighting his own cancer is a gripping story. He shows us how to fight cancer and win. One case does not prove a theory, but this experience has opened my eyes to the power of the patient as his own advocate to cure his own cancer while extending the frontiers of medical knowledge. Cancer patients and friends and family members who wish to understand their treatment better will have their horizons broadened by reading Ruzic's remarkable saga." --Dr. Carl June, Immunologist, University of Pennsylvania "The days of the authoritarian Doctor telling patients what is good for them should be over. Racing to a Cure helps educate and empower both physicians and patients to enter in a partnership of care." --Dr. David Granet, Pediatric Ophthalmologist, University of California San Diego "With the large number of recent discoveries quickly going into the clinic, it is important to make patients aware of the numerous possibilities and options available to them and to remind physicians of these potential therapies. I plan to give copies to all my students." --Dr. Phillip Koeffler [awaiting bio] "This book needs to be read by all cancer patients and their families throughout the world, and by the physicians treating them." --Dr. Wolf-Karsten Hofmann, Hematologist and Senior Researcher at the University Hospital of Frankfurt/Main "No ordinary patient memoir, this book provides an intriguing glimpse into the world of cutting-edge cancer research from the perspective of a well-heeled, highly educated patient willing to challenge conventional medical wisdom... His arguments are thought-provoking and deserve a wide audience. Recommended for academic, medical, public, and consumer health collections." -- Library Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1 edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252028678
• ISBN-13: 978-0252028670
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,945,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Cancer > Lymphatic

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real life adventure with the ultimate stakes--saving lives, January 25, 2004

By 

bro "booksonscience" (Shreveport, LA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Racing to a Cure: A Cancer Victim Refuses Chemotherapy and Finds Tomorrow's Cures in Today's Scientific Laboratories (Hardcover)

I loved this book. Read it!! It really should have been publicized much more; far lesser books end up on the NYT bestsellers list. It is a true adventure story about a man diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma (one of the worst cancers) who refuses to be just another sheep within America's "chemo culture". Instead, he crisscrosses the country in his own airplane, meeting and talking to scientists (the true cancer doctors) within their own laboratories, at the cutting edge of knowledge, in order to try to find a cure for his disease. This book was truly eye-opening, and it is even worth a second-read. It was written with the painstaking efforts of a great science writer who can effectively communicate to the layman and hold the interest of scientists at the same time, something that's very hard to do. I applaud Mr. Ruzic's achievements and his selfless efforts to help others who haven't been blessed with his intellect and financial advantages in life. We need people like him in government. Things really need to be shaken up in the FDA. Ironically, the slow progress in the development of effective new clinical treatments for cancer continues at a time when the scientific understanding of cancer and its molecular bases has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 8 years. One problem appears to be that oncologists have their hands tied by the FDA, and as a result, they often neglect to keep up with the latest developments. This is why we continue to lose so many people to cancer, and so many cancers remain completely incurable (e.g. pancreatic cancer). For instance, even with new cancer vaccines and monoclonal antibodies under development, virtually all clinical trials today require the patient to first take massive doses of highly toxic chemotherapeutic agents. Often cocktails of toxic chemotherapeutic drugs are used that simultaneously devastate the immune system and end up making the cancer refractory to further treatment. What remedies can be taken against this wrong-headed philosophy in order get more of the latest less toxic biotherapies from the lab and into the clinic NOW? After reading this book, it is clear to me that the hospital administrators overseeing the oncology residency programs in America need to be replaced with fresh blood. Also, the FDA needs to be reformed from the ground up. I especially liked one quote in this book, which I have found to be so true, "Welcome to the world of cancer, where doctors are witches and patients are doctors........" Such is the state of affairs in this country, where our government has given us third-rate medical care for cancer, with doctors who fill your body with toxins and then leave you for dead, telling you there is nothing more that can be done. We deserve better treatment, even if that simply means regaining our God-given freedom to treat our own bodies against this dreaded disease.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please Be Aware Of His Current Condition, January 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Racing to a Cure: A Cancer Victim Refuses Chemotherapy and Finds Tomorrow's Cures in Today's Scientific Laboratories (Hardcover)

I found this book to be excellent and recommend it as required reading to anyone who is currently battling cancer. However, please be aware that shortly after the book was published, Mr. Ruzic's cancer returned. The knowledge he gained during his hunt for the cure is invaluable - a real eye-opener to world of cancer treatment. He managed to excellently stem the progress of his cancer without using chemotherapy until this past year.

If you have cancer or are close to one who does, please read the book, but understand that the author had not yet been cured.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Ruzic died, June 29, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Racing to a Cure: A Cancer Victim Refuses Chemotherapy and Finds Tomorrow's Cures in Today's Scientific Laboratories (Hardcover)

Mr. Ruzic died in late January 2004. His illness returned and claimed his life a few months after the book published. Nevertheless, his efforts and spirit as described in this book are heroic, and our medical practitioners have a lot to learn about how to train people and think objectively.