Anticancer: A New Way of Life

David Servan-Schreiber M.D. Ph.D.

Penguin,  September 2008

All of us have cancer cells in our bodies. But not all of us will develop cancer.

When David Servan-Schreiber, a dedicated scientist and doctor, was diagnosed with brain cancer, his life changed. Confronting what medicine knows about the illness and the little-known workings of his body's natural cancer­fighting capacities, and marshaling his own will to live, Servan-Schreiber found himself on a fifteen-­year journey from disease and relapse into scientific exploration and, finally, to health. Combining memoir, concise explanation of what makes cancer cells thrive and what inhibits them, and drawing on both conventional and alternative ways to slow and prevent cancer, Anticancer is revolutionary. It is a moving story of a doctor's inner and outer search for balance; radical in its discussion of the environment, lifestyle, and trauma; and compelling and cautionary in its proposal that cancer cells lie dormant in all of us -- and that we all must care for the "terrain" in which they exist. Advocating a sea change in the way we understand and confront can­cer, Anticancer is a radical synthesis of science and personal experience, an inspiring personal journey, and certainly a guide to "a new way of life."

Anticancer
tells us:

  • Why the traditional Western diet creates the conditions for disease and how to develop a science-based anticancer diet
  • How and why sugar and stress feed cancer­ -- and ways to achieve life balance and good nutrition to combat it
  • Why the effects of helplessness and unhealed wounds affect our ability to restore health
  • How to reap the benefits of exercise, yoga, and meditation
  • How to minimize environmental toxins
  • How to find the right blend of traditional and alternative health care

hardcover | ISBN: 9780670020348 | Publication Date: September 2008

Reviews:
"Enormously compelling evidence and arguments for participating in our own health by supporting our deep natural capacity for healing. Everybody should read this book and enact its simple but potentially lifesaving recommendations. David Servan-Schreiber speaks with a powerful voice from both personal experience with cancer at a young age and from his life's calling as a physician and neuroscientist."
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus, University of Massachusetts Medical School; author of Full Catastrophe Living

''A mesmerizing, brilliant, astonishing, and well-documented journey detailing the extraordinary successes and remarkable failures of efforts to wrestle with cancer in the modern world."
--Devra Davis, National Book Award finalist; author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer

"A courageous, sensible, and rational discussion on how integrative medical approaches may be used in the fight against this devastating disease. Anticancer is an absolutely indispensable guide for cancer survivors and anyone who wants to adopt healthy lifestyle habits in order to prevent cancer."
--Dr. Richard Beliveau, author of Foods That Fight Cancer

"Anticancer is a passionate and thoughtful book. It speaks to both the heart and the head. Dr. Servan-Schreiber builds on his own personal experience with cancer and his medical training to show that life with cancer can be enhanced by changing diet and exercise and living not in fear but fully. Read it and leap into a vibrant life with and against cancer."
--David Spiegel, MD, Willson Professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine; author of Living Beyond Limits: New Hope and Help for Facing Life-Threatening Illness