Book Review: The Answer to Cancer

A Helpful Guide to Prevent Cancer

This is not a sit down and read cover-to-cover kind of book. Most people will benefit from reading all of Part I, which discusses how to prevent cancer in general. Part II, however, consists of 120 pages of detailed information about nine types of cancer; it's a little much to read straight through. Part III also invites readers to jump around a bit in that it provides specific advice to prevent cancer. The book is well organized, so you can easily skip over the parts that don't interest you.

Author Credibility

Do the authors have the authority to give advice about how to prevent cancer? Absolutely. The two main authors are physicians, they never once try to sell you something, and they cite studies from peer-reviewed journals throughout the book.

What's Good About This Book

Anyone who wants to prevent cancer (and who doesn't?) will find a lot of useful information in this book.

• It gives specific recommendations. Instead of simply telling you to eat more fiber, it tells you to eat 30-35 grams of fiber daily.
  
  
• The colorectal cancer chapter is thorough and concise. It's 17 pages long and includes sections on risk assessment, causes, screening, and how to prevent cancer of the colon and rectum.
  
  
• The book is realistic. It doesn't say "To prevent cancer, drink noni juice and everything will be cool." Rather, it says "Research has shown X, so we suggest doing Y."

Since I knew I'd be reviewing the book, I read it straight through, cover-to-cover. It took me a few days, and during those few days, I ate more fruits and vegetables than I had in the past month. "The Answer to Cancer" really pounds into you the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and motivates readers to eat better. It's not that I began nervously gnawing on carrots, obsessively trying to prevent cancer. I think that instead, it was the constant recommendation to eat five-to-nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

What's Bad About This Book

Although the book was great overall, a couple of things could have been better.

• It's hard to achieve a conversational tone about how to prevent cancer while citing scientific research. The authors did a good job in general, but sometimes the book mentions so many scientific studies that it starts to read like one.
  
  
• Although the authors mention specialized concerns when discussing how to prevent cancer in ethnic, racial, and social minorities, they seem to have forgotten about gay people. Members of the LGBT community are at increased risk for a variety of cancers; however, you'd never know it from reading the book.

Who Should Read This Book?

Despite its failure to address all at-risk populations equally, I think "The Answer to Cancer" is an overall success. Anyone who wants to prevent cancer will benefit in some way from reading this book. It may help convince your spouse to get a colonoscopy, your partner to stop smoking, or you to eat healthier and exercise more. In my opinion, it's worth a read and worth a try.