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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. The parcel Farber was expecting contained aminopterin, a __________ crystalline chemical that Farber hoped could be used in deterring the growth of childhood leukemia.

2. The year of his death, 1972, marked what?

3. This place was a space marked indelibly in the history of what?

4. By 1950 more than ___________ of the medicines that were in common use had not existed a decade earlier.

5. Mukherjee begins to discuss the age of cancer, referring to the ancient discoveries of ___________ in 2625 B.C.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is meant by the "smiling oncologist?"

2. Describe Bennett's patient. How was John Bennett's diagnosis logical?

3. Describe Min Chiu Li's work. Why did others believe further treatment was not necessary?

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

5. Why did Sidney Farber change professions? How might this have been a somewhat difficult adjustment?

6. What did Moya Cole think of Halsted's theories? Why?

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

8. Who is Ben Orman? How is he significant to the study of cancer?

9. Why did breast cancer clinical trials last ten years? How could these trials have been run better?

10. How was the chemotherapy ward a battle ground in the 1970s?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Carla Reed was a thirty year old kindergarten teacher who had leukemia.

Part 1) What were her symptoms? Why did it take so long to determine that she had leukemia? How did this lead to her meeting Siddhartha Mukherjee?

Part 2) Describe Mukherjee's experiences with Carla. How was she treated for leukemia? What were the results of her treatment? Why was she such an important part of this book? What purpose did her story serve throughout this book?

Part 3) How did Carla's story affect you? What do you now know about cancer and/or leukemia that you did not know prior to hearing Carla's story? How does this affect your opinion of those who suffer from cancer?

Essay Topic 3

John Bennett was a Scottish physician in the 1800s.

Part 1) What discovery did he make? What were his assumptions about this discovery? Why might he have come to this conclusion? How was he wrong?

Part 2) Describe the work of Rudolf Virchow. How did his studies and conclusions compare to Bennett's? How did this affect what is known about cancer and specifically leukemia? How had knowledge of cancer developed up to this point? What important studies and cases led to the naming of leukemia in 1847?

Part 3) How did studies after the 1840s lead to even more understanding of cancer and specifically leukemia? Has this led to a significant amount of success? Why or why not? Has cancer research seen as much success as other areas of medical study? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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