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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. Atossa's War asks the reader to imagine what?

2. It was determined that a DNA copy of virus' genes could do what?

3. The U.S. Public Health Service is approached regarding what?

4. Mukherjee discusses how cell division is central to what?

5. It was ________ years later when Einar Gustafson returned to Children's Hospital to a full fanfare.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the role of a clinician? What type of people are suited for this work?

2. Who was George Papanicolaou? How was his work important?

3. Who were the successors of Theodor Boveri?

4. What is the Red Queen Syndrome?

5. What is meant by a "Risky Prediction?"

6. What is James Watson's quote? How is this significant?

7. Who were epidemiologists?

8. Mukherjee discusses the successes of others in this story. Why does he credit the survival of patients to the work of those in the 1950s and 1960s?

9. What problems could arise with genetic engineering?

10. Who was Oscar Auerbach? What role did he play in connecting lung cancer to tobacco? Was he a good choice? Why or why not?

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

Four and five drug combinations were tested with success.

Part 1) How did researchers begin to test combinations of four and five drugs? How did many of these combinations affect patients? How did these studies lead to success?

Part 2) How did these successes affect cancer patients? How did these studies also lead to the idea of the "smiling oncologist?" How did this type of doctor affect the mindset of a patient?

Part 3) Is there a need for such an oncologist? Is that type of attitude towards cancer necessary? Why or why not?

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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