Library Journal, October 15, 1998

Epstein's The Politics of Cancer (LJ 1/1/79) exposed the cancer establishment's unsuccessful bid against Nixon's "War on Cancer," instituted in 1971. This landmark text revealed how governmental and non-governmental policies failed to address and fund cancer prevention initiatives and the dissemination of information on known industrial and environmental carcinogens. Now Epstein (The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, Macmillan, 1997), a professor of medicine at the University of Illinois and an international expert on the causes of cancer, combines the out-of-print original with an update on cancer politics. He denounces the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute for prioritizing treatment over prevention and shows how this practice has adversely influenced cancer policy abroad. This is a lengthy but scathing look at how cancer research is funded and conducted. Vital information on carcinogens is provided, along with plans for personal and political action. Recommended for consumer health collections.

Gail Hendler, New York Acad. of Medicine, New York