The First Cell
And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last

Aamir Jafarey, Karachi Pakistan I found the reading of “The First Cell” unnervingly disturbing, to the point that I had to put the book down periodically to let myself ‘recover’. I cannot even imagine what Azra Raza must have gone through personally in putting to paper her own extremely private thoug......more

This book reflects some very important thinking about the deficiencies in the way that cancer drug research is performed in this country and recommendations for a different protocol, and I totally buy what she says. Unfortunately, it also is very detailed about the molecular mechanisms in a way that......more

In her remarkable book “The First Cell,” Azra has been brutally honest at every level. President Nixon declared “War on Cancer” in 1972, but as shown in this book there has been little improvement in the prognosis of most cancers. The only decline in the death rates from cancer we have seen are due......more

This is not ordinarily a book I would read during the plague days, but it was first on my nonfiction list when I agreed to pick up chairing the Otherwise Award jury late in 2019, and one of my closest frineds recommended it very highly. Raza is an oncologist specializing in certain leukemias, has in......more

Cancer has impacted everyone on this planet in some way, and this book offers hope while also reflecting how medicine needs to reevaluate how it tackles this disease. Through this book, it is clear that the author deeply cares about her patients, and it is an inspiring and sobering read at the same......more