EconTalk | 23 March 2020 | 1h 24m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Azra Raza about her book The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last. Raza argues that we have made little progress in fighting cancer over the last 50 years. The tools available to oncologists haven’t changed much – the bulk of the progress that has been made has been through earlier and earlier detection rather than more effective or compassionate treatment options. Raza wants to see a different approach from the current strategy of marginal improvements on narrowly defined problems at the cellular level. Instead, she suggests an alternative approach that might better take account of the complexity of human beings and the way that cancer morphs and spreads differently across people and even within individuals. The conversation includes the challenges of dealing with dying patients, the importance of listening, and the bittersweet nature of our mortality.