A Conspiracy of Cells

Technical and oriented to understanding cancer, not understanding the existential side of a cancer diagnosis. You have to have a smidgen of cell biology and genetics to really get into it, but it's pretty readable for a technical book. In it I found the most revealing explanation of how cancers form, grow and spread that I've encountered. Steen deals with cancer in general and from there takes you through the "natural history" (i.e. how it forms, grows, spreads) of all of the major types. After reading this, you'll understand why doctors make the sorts of decisions they make and why one person's cancer treatment may differ from another person's. The publication date (1993) should tell you that some information on treatments may be out of date. Will appeal to educated people obsessed with the details.