Racing to a Cure is not a cancer memoir. It is a cancer cure memoir. In 1998 Neil Ruzic was diagnosed with mantle-cell lymphoma, the deadliest cancer of the lymph system, whose spread is reaching epidemic levels in the U.S. and Europe. Instead of following recommended courses of chemotherapy and radiation, he took control of his treatment by investigating cures being developed in the nation's cancer-research laboratories.

Although chemotherapy harms the immune system and is increasingly demonstrated to be an ineffective long-term cure for the vast majority of cancers, it remains the standard treatment for most cancer patients. Ruzic, a former scientific magazine publisher and originator of a science center, refused to accept this status quo, and instead plunged into the world of cutting-edge treatments, exploring the frontiers of cancer science with revolutionary results.

Ruzic went on the offensive: visiting scores of laboratories, gathering information, talking to researchers, and effectively becoming his own patient-care advocate. This book presents his findings. A scathing critique of the chemotherapy culture as well as unscientific "alternative" therapies, the book endorses state-of-the-art molecularly based technologies, making it an illuminating and necessary read for anyone interested in cancer research, especially patients and their families and physicians.

Neil Ruzic was expected to die within two years of his initial diagnosis. Five years later he has been declared cancer-free and considers himself cured.

As a medical sociologist, Virginia Adams O’Connell long studied the healthcare system and people navigating illness. Then, in 2019, she confronted her own reality of being diagnosed with primary bone lymphoma. “Since my diagnosis, I joined a club of current and past patients that I never wanted or intended to join,” she writes with both candor and poignancy, adding, “But we can collectively work to make it the best club it can be.”

In the course of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, Adams O’Connell lived through theories she had researched and applied her sociological ideas to help make sense of her personal experiences. Remission Quest chronicles how the reality of living with cancer changed her perspective on what she had studied. Adams O’Connell found her knowledge illustrated and enriched her sociological analysis of our medical institutions and that her own illness narrative shone new light on her theories.

With moving prose, Remission Quest captures the emotions of having cancer and dealing with elaborate medical systems, learning how to be a “good patient” while also managing indescribable fear and fatigue, and confronting questions about the meaning of life. Adams O’Connell’s experiences are both personal and universal. They provide inspiration, compassion, and understanding.