The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

To wage the political campaign against cancer, Farber recruited a socialite named Mary Woodward Lasker. She had met success as a businesswoman selling pre-made dresses and married a successful advertising man named Albert Lasker. Memories of having the Spanish flu and witnessing her family’s laundress undergo radical mastectomies to survive breast cancer haunted her, so Lasker sought a philanthropy. After her mother died of heart disease, she wanted to dedicate herself full throttle to the idea of eradicating disease with the help of her husband. Together, they were consummate fundraisers and able to develop media blitzes.

After she visited the underwhelming American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC) in New York, she launched a publicity campaign in Reader’s Digest, which ran a series of articles about cancer screening and diagnosis. She seized control of the ASCC and turned into a fundraising and publicity machine, with her husband’s help.

She turned her sights on Congress and recruited Farber to be the scientific voice of her campaign. The relationship was symbiotic, as Farber needed Lasker as a lobbyist. The idea of using chemotherapy to treat cancer captivated her, and together they launched a political campaign to raise money and awareness of the disease.