The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller by John Grisham (Epub)

Description

John Grisham says THE TUMOR is the most important book he has ever written. In this short book, he provides readers with a fictional account of how a real, new medical technology could revolutionize the future of medicine by curing with sound.

THE TUMOR follows the present day experience of the fictional patient Paul, an otherwise healthy 35-year-old father who is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Grisham takes readers through a detailed account of Paul’s treatment and his family’s experience that doesn’t end as we would hope. Grisham then explores an alternate future, where Paul is diagnosed with the same brain tumor at the same age, but in the year 2025, when a treatment called focused ultrasound is able to extend his life expectancy.

Focused ultrasound has the potential to treat not just brain tumors, but many other disorders, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer.

For more information, you can visit The Focused Ultrasound Foundation’s website. Here you will find a video of Grisham on the TEDx stage with the Foundation’s chairman and a Parkinson’s patient who brings the audience to its feet sharing her incredible story of a focused ultrasound “miracle.”

Readers will get a taste of the narrative they expect from Grisham, but this short book will also educate and inspire people to be hopeful about the future of medical innovation.

User’s Reviews

“John Grisham’s readers have always been captured by his eloquent exposition of injustice. In this short story “The Tumor,” he has stepped outside of the courtroom and legal system and into the arena of medicine and health care and in doing so has perhaps found his most passionate voice. There is no greater injustice than a cruel invader called cancer who steals from the innocent their most precious position of life. As in all his writings, Mr. Grisham in portraying this injustice evokes within us a calling to demand its remedy. As in the court room, this battle for justice has begun.”- Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, Former Commissioner of the FDA and Former Director of the National Cancer Institute”Grisham has gone rogue, turning his formidable writing skills into an outreach to us all in an effort to shed light on a new, disruptive medical technology that has the potential to save lives. Seldom does a writer at the top of his game step away from his career to speak out on a revolutionary medical therapy. He says this is the most important book he has ever written. I believe him. This book is an amazing read!”- Antonio Mendez, Retired CIA officer, author of ARGO”What incredible potential to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients while decreasing the cost of care. I’ve seen the power of this technology firsthand with doctors at the University of Virginia. Just as that experience brought home the reality of the technology for me, John Grisham’s The Tumor gives readers a better picture for what the future of medicine can look like with focused ultrasound.”- U.S. Senator Mark Warner”Grisham’s book is changing the game. He has pulled an exciting new medical technology out of the labs of academic research and onto the pages of an enlightening book. He paints a great picture of how sound waves may shape the future of medicine.”- Ed Miller, MD, former CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine”John emotionally captures the tremendous opportunity for Focused Ultrasound to provide a new revolutionary disruptive therapy that will improve, extend and save lives.”- Steve Rusckowski, President & CEO, Quest Diagnostics Inc.”John Grisham utilizes his great storytelling talents to bring to life the science that may change the treatment of some of the most dreaded cancers. Grisham’s view into one innovative therapy will give hope to millions about treatments that don’t poison and destroy, arriving long before the yet-to-be-discovered ‘individualized medicine’. The book combines fact and future in an enlightening and informative way.”- Howard Stevenson, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Emeritus, Harvard Business School”The book is a terrific hybrid of novel and technology review. It provides a dramatic sense of the difference between what is available now and the possibility of the future. So many of us know people that could be the protagonist, that exploring the experience from the patient point of view is very compelling.” – Gordy Slack, neuroscience journalist and author”Sooner or later many are likely to benefit from this game changing technology. Now the task at hand is to cause its development to occur as rapidly as possible. By increasing awareness, The Tumor can help make focused ultrasound available sooner to countless patients worldwide with a host of medical conditions.”- Rick Goings, CEO, Tupperware Brands “Focused ultrasound therapy is far from fictional: It’s real and rapidly gaining fame. But to see John Grisham move in this book from the legal world into medicine is to realize that the focused ultrasound story needs to be shared and there is no better way than through one of our best storytellers.” – Carol Loomis, Retired Fortune Magazine editor and writer”A radical and potentially revolutionary view of the future of brain cancer treatment and cure. Using non-invasive focused ultrasound in the treatment of brain tumors with minimal side effects or down time seems like science fiction. In the book “The Tumor,” John Grisham describes this highly innovative clinical process, which consists of applying sound waves at a frequency past the hearing capability of a human ear. The technology is no longer science fiction and may one day rewrite the outcome for cancers of the brain, breast, liver, prostate, and pancreas as well as many other serious diseases.” – Richard Merkin, MD, President and CEO of Heritage Provider Network”John Grisham is amazing. For 25 years, he has entertained and educated us with his legal thrillers. Now, he is opening our minds to one of the most exciting medical treatments of our time. The Tumor is a quick but truly fascinating read.” – Bill Crutchfield, Founder & CEO, Crutchfield Corporation

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ In nearly 2000 reviews, I have seldom written a1-star review. Usually, I abandon a book without a review if I’m not enjoying it, so I give a 1- or 2-star rating only if I feel the author has somehow cheated the reader. In other low-rated books, it has been unsatisfactory endings, such as “continued in book 2.” In this case, the deception came in calling this book a thriller. It’s not even a story. It’s just an example of a patient who dies of a brain tumor and then saying that in a decade he wouldn’t have died because focused ultrasound would be the treatment of choice, followed by a solicitation of donations to the foundation advocating for this procedure.Rather than a novella or short story, this is a brochure promoting a medical procedure. I’m happy to learn about this upcoming treatment, and as a promotional brochure, this had excellent content. If I were rating it as a pamphlet advocating for advancing a medical procedure, I would have rated it much higher. But that’s not how it’s promoted–it’s called a non-legal thriller, and that is total deception. Maybe not total–it it “non-legal,” so that part of the description is accurate. However, it is no way a thriller.The so-called book was free; if I had paid for this, I would have been very upset. However, there is no need for the deception. Had it been promoted as nonfiction explaining a new medical procedure that can save lives, it would have been interesting and probably more successful in raising awareness and obtaining financial support for getting this procedure tested, approved, and available to patients.Calling this book fiction makes me wonder if what this new procedure can do is fiction.If you want to know what focused ultrasound is and how the promoters say it will impact treatment for brain tumors and many other medical conditions, read this pamphlet. If you want to read a thriller, look elsewhere.

⭐ I have long wondered about the curing possibilities of ultrasound. Back in the ’60’s I had a cluster of plantar warts on the bottom of one foot. The doctor would not cut them out because he said they would return so he treated them over 6 weeks with liquid nitrogen. It was a process. In the ‘80’s my daughter had a cluster of plantar warts on her foot and I took her to the doctor to diagnose and treat. He told us he wanted to try something that was new for treating plantar warts and sent us to the hospital for ultrasound treatments on her foot. We went every day for 10 days (fortunately our local hospital was less than a mile from our house). I remember asking the ultrasound tech how was it that ultrasound was safe to use on pregnant women and yet destructive enough to get rid of the warts. He informed us that the ultrasound would not harm normal tissue, but would destroy abnormal tissue. Within a week after the last of the treatments all of the warts turned black and fell off. What a marvel it was for my daughter to not have to go through what I went through for 6 weeks. Ever since her experience, I have often wondered why there wasn’t more use of this technology. I have also never heard of anyone else having the treatment for the plantar warts. I am thankful that we had a doctor who was forward thinking.

⭐ I got this book expecting a novella, short story or something by a great fiction writer. Instead, what I got was a blatant infomercial promoting a particular experimental medical treatment regimen for cancer and various diseases.It starts out as a very dry, depressing story about a brain cancer patient. Then Grisham imagines how the fellow’s story might end differently if he was treated using focused ultrasound waves. Then you’re introduced to some folks, via YouTube videos, who’ve successfully managed their illnesses using this technology. Finally, Grisham introduces you to an organization promoting the development of the technology within links to their website.I’m not saying it was wrong for John Grisham to write this, and it’s certainly not wrong for him to give it away free. However, I think he needs to give readers a heads up that it’s not leisure reading. Unless you’re interested in focused ultrasound treatment, don’t bother reading this book.

⭐ John Grisham, known for his legal thrillers, made a detour in The Tumor: A Non-legal Thriller. It’s very short—74 printed pages—though I read it on my Kindle.The story begins with Paul, born in 1980 and now 35 years old, his wife, Karen, and their children. The family lives a normal, busy life. Paul is healthy, active, doesn’t smoke and takes no medication.One day Paul suddenly experiences a grand-mal seizure and is rushed to the hospital. In looking back, Paul and Karen realize that he has been gradually showing unusual symptoms. He has headaches, has difficulty concentrating at work, becomes irritable, and at times experiences blurred vision.Tests reveal that Paul has a brain tumor about the size of an egg, a type known as a glioma. Surgery is the only solution and the operation takes about three hours. Gliomas are graded one through four, with one and two benign; three and four malignant. Paul’s is a four and his chances of survival for more than five years are slim. Grisham goes into some detail about the actual surgery, the findings, the recovery, the recurring symptoms and the grim prognosis.Had Paul been born in 1990 and diagnosed with the brain tumor at age 35, his story could be rewritten. With focused ultrasound technology, it is possible to have a non-invasive therapeutic treatment that will improve outcomes and decrease the cost of care. In addition to brain tumor treatment, focused ultrasound treatment is in development to treat many other diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and tumors of the liver, pancreas and lung.John Grisham believes this book is the most important he’s ever written. He is an active member of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is “To accelerate the development and adoption of focused ultrasound.” The book refers the reader to different aspects of the foundation’s functions to find treatment centers, learn about clinical trials, and how to become active in the support of the foundation and its goals.I found The Tumor, published 2016, enlightening and well-written. I admire the author’s departure from writing best-selling legal thrillers to applying his impressive talent toward furthering a technology aimed at saving or improving lives.

⭐ GBM is a bad disease with which I’m personally aquatinted. Despite all that medical science could offer at the turn of this century, GBM took the life of a close friend. At that time, the Game Knife was touted as the new right arm of surgeons, allegedly empowering miraculous surgical cures. But, no matter how finely , it cut, it couldn’t find those seed cells emerging from the tumor to seed the growth of the next tumor. So his family looked further and found out about Duke University’s experimental GBM program. They had a novel approach which perhaps allowed those tumor seeding cells to be tracked down and killed. The cancer cell assassins were made in a lab: monoclonal antibodies with some radioactivity and an affinity for GBM. These had the ability to penetrate up to an inch around the perimeter of the debulked tumor. At two years, there was no regrowth. The MRI and PET scans were negative. But there was a problem. He was required to undergo the standard course of radiation that is given for GBM. This was because the Duke treatment was experimental. The radiation from the Duke treatment and the X radiation done locally created a cranial lesion that would not heal. He had CSF leaking from his head through this lesion. And he had frequent infections which were treated by oral antibiotics. One of these killed him. It seemed to me that The Duke treatment was very promising. But the side effect from so much radiation allowed a bacterial infection to kill him. The hypothetical ultrasound approach discussed in this book sounds much more benign. I truly hope it finds approval and implementation.

⭐ John Grisham ends “The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller” on: “This is the most important book I’ve ever written.” –John GrishamWow!I’ll admit that his book caught me by surprise, by double surprise. Though I haven’t read a book by Grisham in a long time (read: A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Runaway Jury) I thought I could guess what I’d receive when I picked up “The Tumor” on free promo. No, I didn’t read the book’s description; the whole world knows that John Grisham writes courtroom drama so I thought that’s what I’d get.Surprise #1: ‘The Tumor’ tells the real life story of Paul, a 35-year-old banker, an exceptionally healthy man, his wife, Karen, and their three young children. Even though Paul jogs twenty miles a week, plays golf, doesn’t smoke, and takes no medication, out of the blue Paul experiences some health problem which he contributes to stress on the job. Sooner after, he has a seizure and passes out. Tests reveal he has a brain tumor, which turns out to be the most catastrophic, glioblastoma.It seems to me that’s the tumor John McCain was diagnosed with. For sure Ted Kennedy, Beau Biden, Lee Atwater, George Gershwin, and Wilma Rudolph died from a glioblastoma. In typical Grisham style the story moves forward quickly, alas, no last minute brilliant lawyer intervention is possible – Paul dies.Why is Grisham telling the story? Because a cure will be possible in the (relatively near) future – the best kept secret in medicine – focused ultrasound. No invasive surgery, no draining treatments, no exhausting, maybe not really working chemo therapy.Surprise #2: Grisham wants to speed up the development of the procedure. He is on the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Board of Directors, hence lent his talents to tell the story right to this awesome cause.For me, that’s where the circle closes. The book is again the story of a few brave men and women, who don’t wait for pharmaceutical corporations to develop new expensive chemo therapies. In comparison to the big pharmaceutical corporation the Focused Ultrasound Foundation is like that clever small town lawyer who does the right thing and “fights for the cause.”Whoever you are who reads my review: Grab “The Tumor” by John Grisham. It’s free. Read it, study it, and maybe donate. You are one of your loved ones may need this book’s knowledge in the future.Deeply impressed and grateful,5 stars,Gisela Hausmann

⭐ I have a brain tumor and greatly appreciate your fervor and support of curing/treating brain cancer. This is a technology currently in development for many types of illnesses and cancers; this book postulates a possible future for those with one of those. I appreciate that John Grisham is using his voice/pen in support of treatment and development of technology. As a minor point…the book states that gliomas come in 4 grades (true) and that grade I & II are benign (not true). I have a grade II oligodendroglioma. And it is definitely not benign. It is 100% incurable and has 100% recurrence rate. Grades III & IV are definitely malignant and as noted glioblastoma is a terrible form of this disease. Here are few statistics: Breast cancer gets about $700 million in funding per year. Brain cancer get about $10million (there are about 150 types of brain tumors). Most of the funding for brain cancer goes to glioblastoma. (Which has about 10-12,000 diagnoses per year and at any given time, about 22,000 persons alive with it. As you read in the story, prognoses are grim for those with this tumor: median life expectancy from diagnosis is 15mo. That has not changed in decades. For my type of tumor, which is much more slowly growing, there are about 3-4,000 diagnoses per year and about 20-25,000 folks living with this tumor (nearly the same as glioblastoma!). However, there has been almost zero funding (except from private donors) in the last 5+ years. Additionally, this tumor has had no new drugs developed for it in over 2 decades. This tumor does not even have the building blocks to test existing drugs (no cell lines). In addition, there are some new studies out there for glioblastoma and other brain tumors showing promising results (Tcell vaccines) with few side effects…keep your eyes out for this also. Thank you for reading! For any news on this tumor, please check out oligonation.org

⭐ Although not a novel, this informational e-brochure will result in greater awareness and hopefully additional research funding for focused ultrasound, better known as HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) for treatment of brain cancer, which can be so aggressive and cruel.. Because the treatment for brain cancer is still experimental, HIFU for brain cancer is currentlylimited to clinical trials, BUT HIFU has already been approved for other cancer. As the publication notes in a chart, HIFU was approved the FDA in 2015 for ablation (i.e., high temperature destruction) of prostate tissue). But the FDA approval is actually late, in my opinion, as HIFU has already been successfully used for 15 years in Europe and Japan for treating prostate cancer (and by US doctors who performed in the Carribbean and Mexico due to the FDA’s slowness.). I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Gleason 6, in November 2015. My urologist who is generally top-notch did NOT mention HIFU as a treatment option, but I found it through an online support group and reading medical journals closely regarding HIFU for prostate cancer. In short, it has a treatment efficacy right in line with surgical removal and radiation, but it is non-invasive and has far fewer side effects (ED, incontinence) than surgery or radiation. Based on my study, and consultations with multiple urologists, I chose to have HIFU for my prostate cancer that was diagnosed in November 2015, which will be performed on February 26, 2016 by the most experienced HIFU urologist in the country. Many physicians will discount HIFU based on the supposed lack of long-term outcomes and their instinctive reaction to recommend what they know (not to mention what they sell.) There are enough positive studies and data that I chose this method (and the technology has greatly improved since the early studies.). I support the call for more study and research of HIFU for all forms of cancer and would strongly encourage anyone diagnosed now with prostate cancer to include HIFU as a treatment option, if possible. Finding an experienced HIFU urologist is critical. Since the FDA approval, a number of HIFU prostate centers have opened, but be sure you find a urologist who has performed hundreds of prostate HIFU’s.

⭐ When a popular and best selling author writes this: The most important book I have written, you need to take note. Grisham writes about a patient with a brain tumor and the effects it had despite conventional treatment. The use of focused ultra sound therapy to treat and heal people suffering from brain tumors could one day alleviate the need for conventional brain surgery. Simply, focused ultra sound therapy uses beams of ultrasound energy to destroy tumors with high accuracy. It has been used successfully to treat prostrate cancer and uterine fibroids (benign tumors of the uterus) avoiding hysterectomies and infertility. Focused ultrasound technology is undergoing clinical trials for brain, breast, pancreas and liver tumors, as well as arthritis and Parkinson’s disease. This book is well worth reading for everyone.

⭐ Grisham is always good. This was totally different from what I have read from him in the past. It hit home because we just watched closely as a very dear friend fought this same disease. It seemed that everything they did was a trial. He went from being an incredible dad, husband, uncle and friend who was always on the move to someone who no longer wanted to socialize because of what he envisioned he had become. I was one of the lucky few he allowed to share his lonely journey. His wife was so much stronger than I ever gave her credit for in the past. His daughters were there for him always. He was never left alone. He joked about it with everyone like he was going to be fine. In the end he was unconscious and we just sat around trying to encourage him. We didn’t know if he could hear what we were saying or even understood it. He was financially savvy and set his family up so they will have no financial difficulties. He was my dear friend for most of my life and watching him go out like that and not being able to help him broke all of our hearts. This book is one that should be read by the people who are suffering with this, have suffered with this orknow someone who has. It should be put in front of these pharmaceutical executives faces and made mandatory reading.Well done John Grisham!Jim Elliott

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