To dance with the devil

Breast cancer takes the life of an American woman every twelve minutes. There is no sure cure for the disease, no known way to prevent it, and no means of predicting whom it will strike next. A community of dogged adversaries stands in opposition to it: mavericks and bureaucrats, brilliant innovators and everyday heroes. Often at passionate odds in temper and technique, they are united in their resolve against an elusive, implacable enemy. To Dance with the Devil is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account from the war on one of medicine's most pernicious foes. The product of over three years of research, scores of interviews with the nation's top doctors, policymakers, researchers, and activists, and in-depth reporting on the patients and clinicians who invited the author into their lives, To Dance with the Devil is at once an up-to-the-minute report and a gripping human drama. For a year Karen Stabiner was a steady observer at the innovative UCLA Breast Center, following the progress of Dr. Susan Love, the eminent breast surgeon and author, and a number of Love's patients. From UCLA, Stabiner's narrative spirals out to examine the turbulent national scene: partisan politics and budget crises; pioneering research and dire experimental treatments; managed care and the battle to shape its future; high stakes, high society fund-raising; and the brutally competitive race for answers and dollars.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.