The Making and Unmaking of a Physician
The Making and Unmaking of a Physician

The Making and Unmaking of a Physician

The EXPERIENCES THAT LED TO BECOMING A CANCER
DOCTOR TAKING ON DEATH AS A LIFELONG ADVERSARY

Available October, 2026

The Making and Unmaking of a Physician

The role of courage in the pursuit of a cure for cancer

Dr. Edward Arenson

Available October, 2026

As a result of this decision, I had the good fortune to be part of events which led to the cure of most childhood and several adult cancers through the use of combination chemotherapy.

I was a colleague of and was inspired by several of the heroic physicians whose courage made this possible. During my education and my years of clinical practice, I developed the self-confidence to apply the principles I had learned in my pediatric oncology days to the treatment of patients with brain tumors.

Here, for the first time in my career, I became an outcast and the adversary of those who wished to maintain the unacceptable status quo and lacked the courage and experience to join me in my quest.

I led clinical trials that demonstrated superior survival for my patients by doing nothing more than applying the same approach that was responsible for the conquest of most childhood cancers, but I had moved naively into a hostile environment instead of the supportive climate of my earlier days.

Dr. Edward Arenson is a retired oncologist and neuro-oncologist. He was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he has been honored for lifetime achievements. He attended Cornell University, majoring in English literature and specializing in early American writing. Dr. Arenson attended medical school at Drexel University and specialized in childhood cancer at the University of Colorado and UCLA Center for the Health Sciences. He lives in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, with his wife, Aura.