The novel engages the reader in the search for the cure of malignant melanoma. While an
uncommon skin cancer, one American dies of melanoma almost every hour (every 61
minutes). The incidence rate has tripled in the
last twenty years.
When nature, in her ultimate act of irony, strikes Richard
Powell, a cancer specialist, with malignant melanoma, a highly aggressive form
of cancer, his wife, Terri devotes her life to curing the disease that
ultimately kills her husband.
While research laboratories are characterized as “noble” in
search of cures, and proprietary drug companies are caricatured as ”ruthless
and materialistic”, too often, the distinctions aren’t so clear.
The murder of a drug courier to obtain an experimental and
promising treatment for malignant melanoma, unleashes a chain of devastating
consequences.
People for Alternative Treatment, a company created to find
cures for rare diseases, had fallen on hard times and become a subsidiary of
Kendall Pharmaceuticals, a company with very different values.
Experimentation with a vaccine against tuberculosis is
showing surprising effects in controlling malignant melanoma at PAT and UC
Medical Center. Kendall is enthralled with the economic potential of such a
treatment, while researchers are leery and have many unanswered questions.
Kendall’s determination to push the vaccine into clinical
trial at all costs is in conflict with Terri and her ethical associates.
When clinical trials begin, the vaccine’s effects are
miraculous. Soon, however, once again, we see the rule of unintended
consequences.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ELWQ4IA
Update website as well.
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