The Conquest of Cancer
A Long-Ignored Breakthrough
Kalina compellingly argues on behalf of an underutilized cancer treatment in his persuasive new work.
In The Conquest of Cancer, Vladimir Kalina provides insight into a controversial therapy that may provide a less intrusive treatment, and even hope, to those afflicted with cancer.
The book opens by detailing the state of cancer treatment today. Even though research has progressed, Kalina sees cancer treatment as mired by resistance to new ideas and professional jealousies. Because of this, he says, the status quo has overlooked a therapy discovered in 1957 by Czechoslovakian surgeon Karel Fortýn—a procedure called devitalization, which cuts the blood flow to cancer cells.
Kalina proposes that the surgery—part of a therapy called autologous tissue anti-cancer immunization therapy (ATACIT)—could be less intrusive and cheaper than traditional cancer therapies, and could save thousands of lives.
Although the book is intended to educate medical specialists, Kalina writes with a clear, straightforward style in order to reach a larger audience and help more people lean about ATACIT. Whenever a topic is introduced, it is accompanied by a comprehensive explanation, giving a nonmedical audience greater context for the treatment.
Such extensive explanations can become tricky, as when a chapter is dedicated to describing how to perform the therapy on different parts of the body. But even in such sections, the book succeeds at balancing the needs of both its medical and layperson audiences.
A compare-and-contrast structure also serves the work well. A high-level overview of modern cancer research and treatment is provided at the beginning of the book and is then effectively contrasted to the impact that ATACIT therapy could have on cancer treatment. This results in a compelling and persuasive narrative to promote the therapy.
The tone of the book is shaped by such awareness. Kalina is clearly frustrated that the medical community isn’t more receptive to the therapy, even calling out the establishment for its “totalitarian communist methods and practices.”
This frustration is palpable through provided evidence, such as the fact that the devitalization procedure is performed regularly in veterinary medicine with an 80 percent success rate, while human trials were halted prematurely. Ultimately, the book concludes that the resistance to the ATACIT therapy denies thousands of cancer patients access to a treatment that may save and improve their lives.
The Conquest of Cancer is ideal for medical specialists seeking less invasive therapies for their patients, as well as for anyone suffering from cancer and desperate for further, more positive information. One hopes that the medical community may one day see ATACIT in a different, more positive light; as Kalina writes, “The greater the resistance to a newly discovered principle, the greater its ultimate contribution to medicine in the general interest of society.”
Reviewed by
Katerie Prior
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
