We have lost the war on cancer, according to professor of medicine and director of Columbia University’s Myeldysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center Azra Raza. Each year, $150 billion is spent treating cancer, yet — a few innovations notwithstanding — a patient with cancer is as likely to die of it as one was 50 years ago. Most new drugs add mere months to one’s life, at agonizing physical and financial cost.

In her new book The First Cell, Dr. Raza offers a searing account of how both medicine and our society mis(treat) cancer, how we can do better, and why we must. Join Asia Society Texas Center as Dr. Raza explores cancer from every angle — medical, scientific, cultural, and personal — as she argues that we are overdue for a change in the paradigm for treating cancer.