The Future of Cancer Treatments with Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at Columbia University, and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center, has devoted his life to caring for cancer patients. As a researcher, he runs a laboratory on the forefront of discovering new cancer drugs for leukemia and mylodysplasia.  He spoke about his work at the Kentucky Author Forum on Oct. 13, 2011, with Harvard University's David Scadden, M.D., conducting the interview.Dr. Mukherjee's book, The Emperor of All Maladies, details the evolution of diagnosis and treatment of human cancers from ancient Egypt to the latest developments in chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Approaching the subject with the passion of a biographer and the story-telling skill of a novelist, he includes personal observations about his own coming of age as a physician. Oprah Magazine listed it as one of the "Top 10 Books of 2010". It was also listed in "The 10 Best Books of 2010" by The New York Times and "The Top 10 Nonfiction Books" by Time.In 2011 The Emperor of All Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction category. His debut book was also nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, one of the most prestigious prizes for writing in the U.S. Time named Dr. Mukherjee in its "100 Most Influential People" list for 2011, along with artists, politicians and scientists.The full conversation from the Kentucky Author Forum is presented below.