Pioneering oncologist Dr. Vincent T. DeVita Jr., provides a personal history of one of the greatest science stories of our time—the fight against cancer—in his book The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There. DeVita’s daughter and the book’s co-author, journalist Elizabeth DeVita Raeburn, will interview him on Monday, January 11, at 7 pm in the Westport Library’s McManus Room. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the program, which is free and open to the public.
DeVita is a professor of medicine and epidemiology and public health at Yale School of Medicine. He was the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Cancer Program from 1980 to 1988, when he joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as the physician-in-chief. In 1993, he became the director of the Yale Cancer Center. At the NCI, he developed a cure for Hodgkin's lymphoma with combination chemotherapy, proving that advanced cancers can be cured by drugs. He is a former president of the American Cancer Society and the co-editor of Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology, a textbook of cancer medicine. Elizabeth DeVita Raeburn, the co-author, is also author of The Empty Room: Surviving the Loss of a Brother or Sister at Any Age.
Despite declining mortality rates, DeVita argues, America's cancer patients are being shortchanged by timid doctors, misguided national agendas and compromised bureaucracies. He gives readers a look at the strengths and weaknesses of America's most prestigious cancer centers, showing how patients can use this information to their advantage. Though there is rapid advancement towards victory over cancer, he contends, more needs to be done to synthesize the progress and help doctors put it into practice.
NYT Science section article on the book
NPR "Fresh Air" Interview with Terry Gross
For further information, phone 203-291-4800, or check westportlibrary.org.