Super Short Summary

The Emperor of All Maladies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning work by Siddhartha Mukherjee, chronicles the 4,000-year effort to understand and treat cancer, beginning from Mukherjee’s fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, with the leukemia treatment of Carla Reed. The book traces the historical evolution of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy and radical surgeries, the fight against cancer through prevention, and the impact of genetic research on targeted therapies, while acknowledging the ever-changing nature of the disease and the continuous need for adaptability in finding a cure. The book discusses cancer diagnoses and treatments, which may be distressing to some readers.