There are three groups of people who should read this book:

You see, as Servan-Schreiber matter-of-factly puts it, "Cancer lies dormant in all of us."

That pronouncement may have a bleak ring to it when taken out of the context of the book in its entirety, but I assure you, there is nothing gloomy about Anticancer. On the contrary, it is a hope preserver -- and, quite probably, a life saver.

Although cancer has become epidemic in Western societies, the author argues convincingly that we have the means at hand to turn the tide.

It's not often that a nonfiction book about a disease qualifies as a page turner, but I flew through Servan-Schreiber's story as raptly as I've read any novel. While he offers compelling guidance on how to make one's body inhospitable terrain for cancer to flourish, it is the doctor's personal tale that makes this book so much more powerful than others in this category.

End of the World as We Know It

As a young neuroscientist, Servan-Schreiber learned quite by accident that he had a malignant brain tumor. When a student volunteer failed to show up for a study he and some fellow researchers were conducting, he offered to be the guinea pig in an experiment that required the use of an MRI. Instead of making the routine observations planned for the session, his colleagues made the chilling discovery.

As he relates his struggle to come to terms with the news, Servan-Schreiber exposes not only what the cancer was doing to him physically, but also how it affected his heart, mind and soul. Cancer, as those who have experienced it know only too well, does not limit itself to one's flesh and bones. It strikes at hopes and dreams. It alters, and sometimes ends, relationships. It transforms the way a person views the world, and it changes the way the world views a person.

The young doctor used the gifts he was born with -- his intellect and a curiosity that seems to transcend self-involvement -- to explore the possibilities for surviving, adapting to, and conquering cancer. He tells his story with the detachment of a scientist and the warmth of a kindred soul -- somehow blending objectivity and subjectivity so skillfully that he shows us, rather than tells us, how we are all connected to one another and to our planet.

Simple Choices

But Servan-Schreiber is not some kind of new age guru. Far from it. He's not cultivating a following, and Anticancer is not a bible. The book offers insights, scientific assessments, principles and anecdotes. The author doesn't prescribe; he simply shares. His advice is calm, reasoned and uplifting.

In broad strokes, here are some of his recommendations:

In Anticancer, Servan-Schreiber goes to some lengths to expand on each of these large themes -- and more -- but he doesn't imply that these holistic approaches to health are in any way a substitution for the medical therapies available to treat cancer when it does occur.

New Landscape, New Horizon

As a physician, he is highly attuned to the necessity of finding the best way to excise or destroy cancer, considering all the available tools of the medical trade, including alternative approaches. In consultation with his doctors and advisors, he carefully selected the treatments that seemed best for his condition -- not only when cancer first struck, but also, years later, when it recurred in exactly the same spot.

It was after his second surgery, followed by a course of chemotherapy, that Servan-Schreiber got serious about putting up a 'no parking' sign for cancer in his own body. Sixteen years following his first diagnosis, that sign is still doing it's job.

This is something all of us can do, perhaps not by following his way precisely, but gleaning from his experience and shared knowledge a few handfuls of sparkling gold dust to illuminate our own path.

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