All of us have cancer cells in our bodies. But not all of us will develop cancer. This international bestseller examines what we can do every day to lower our chances of ever developing the illness, and also explains how to increase the chances of recovery from it.

Dr David Servan-Schreiber was first confronted with cancer when he was working as a medical resident. Already a recognised pioneer in neuroscience, by his own admission he had all the arrogant and immortal confidence of a 30-year-old overachiever. Then he discovered he had cancer of the brain, and his life changed forever.

Servan-Schreiber went on to research alternative medicine, founding and directing the Center for Integrative Medicine at the highly conservative University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

This revised edition of his bestselling book is the culmination of his experience in the field of cancer, both as a doctor and as a patient. It is his personal story, the story of the cases he has come across, and the medical and scientific story of the disease and its mechanisms. He looks, in particular, at the relation between a body and its cancer; at the immune system; and at the roles played by nutrition, emotions, and physical activity in containing cancer.

Servan-Schreiber does not dismiss conventional medicine, nor is he anti-pharmaceutical: he empowers the reader with the understanding and the tools to tackle cancer alongside conventional treatments — or, better yet, to help avoid cancer altogether.