A Contagious Cause by Robin Wolfe Scheffler - 9780226458892

The University of Chicago Press

A Contagious CauseThe American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine\nAuthor(s): Robin Wolfe Scheffler\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: The University of Chicago Press, United States\nImprint: University of Chicago Press\nISBN-13: 9780226458892, 978-0226458892\nSynopsis\nIs cancer a contagious disease? In the late nineteenth century this idea, and attending efforts to identify a cancer germ, inspired fear and ignited controversy. Yet speculation that cancer might be contagious also contained a kernel of hope that the strategies used against infectious diseases, especially vaccination, might be able to subdue this dread disease. Today, nearly one in six cancers are thought to have an infectious cause, but the path to that understanding was twisting and turbulent.\nA Contagious Cause is the first book to trace the century-long hunt for a human cancer virus in America, an effort whose scale exceeded that of the Human Genome Project. The governments campaign merged the .