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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Mukherjee was one of ____________ cancer fellows at the hospital involved in an immersive training program. Mukherjee describes the immersive training program as being so intensive that nothing outside of the hospital exists for the trainees. Residents eat, sleep and breathe medicine.

2. In 1969, the New York Times published an open letter to ___________________ begging him to support cancer research.

3. The first VAMP trial was launched in ___________. The results were abysmal. Refinements showed progress and even success. However, the cost was quite high for the young patients.

4. _________ surgery was accelerated to superradical surgery.

5. What was the argument regarding chemotherapy?

Short Essay Questions

1. On what two fundamental tenets is biology based? Explain these tenets.

2. What were the two major arguments regarding current cancer treatments? Why?

3. Choose a period of history that is significant to cancer research. How is this significant?

4. What did FDR do to fight cancer? What caused support of cancer research to wane? Why?

5. How is cancer a total disease? How is this important?

6. Why was Farber fortunate to have lived in the right time, and also died at the right time?

7. How was this letter to Richard Nixon significant at the time?

8. Describe the drug and cancer lists of Canellas and Frei. How is this significant?

9. What were the problems with VAMP? How might these be corrected?

10. What symptoms led to Carla Reed learning she had leukemia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mukherjee ends the book with the tale of Germaine.

Part 1) What is this tale? Who was Germaine? How is this story important to the book? Why might the author end with this story?

Part 2) What does this story say about the author's view of cancer? Is he as optimistic as James Watson? Why or why not?

Part 3) Do you agree with the author's view of cancer? Why or why not? How does this ending affect your feelings towards this book? How does this affect the ultimate mood of the book? Was this a good way to end the book? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Mukherjee discusses the history of cancer.

Part 1) When was the finding and study of cancer first seen? How is this surprising? Why might knowledge and/or discussion of cancer stopped after this period of time? Did cancer still exist? Why or why not?

Part 2) What are two other times in history when the study of cancer took place? What did doctors and scientists know about cancer at that time? On what information was this knowledge based? How accurate was this knowledge?

Part 3) What is known about cancer today? How much of our knowledge today is based on previous knowledge? How important is cancer history to the study of cancer today? Why? How is history, in general, important to us today?

Essay Topic 3

In 1968, Farber celebrated the 21st anniversary of the Jimmy Fund.

Part 1) What was the Jimmy Fund? How was the fact it had celebrated its 21st anniversary important? Who was Jimmy? How is his life significant to the study of cancer?

Part 2) What is also significant about what is known about his reasons for survival? What does this also say about cancer and cancer research?

Part 3) What other celebrities are found in this book? Who became a celebrity because of cancer? Why? How did this affect cancer research and the public's support of cancer research? How are celebrities today still important to various medical organizations? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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