One in three : a son's journey into the history and science of cancer

When his father was diagnosed with cancer, Adam Wishart couldn't find any book that answered his questions: what was the disease, how did it take hold and what did it mean?

What is it about cancer's biology that means it has not been eradicated?

How close are we, really, to a cure? There was no such book. So he wrote it. "One in Three" interweaves two powerful stories: that of Adam and his father; and also the 200-year search for a cure.

This is an optimistic book because the progress of medicine has resulted, during the last decade or so, in declining death rates.

So now many doctors believe that within fifty years cancer may become an illness we live with, rather than die from.

This is the story of that hope. As one in three of us will develop the disease at some time in our lives this book will help us understand it without blind terror.