Few diseases or conditions of the human body are surrounded by so many myths and speculations as cancer. At the same time, many myths are based on echoes of real scientific theories, distorted beyond recognition by “oral folk art” in gossip and retellings. The author of the book, molecular biologist Maria Kondratova, working at the Curie Institute in Paris, set herself the task of separating the wheat from the chaff and giving it to the reader an accessible, but at the same time scientific understanding of the nature of cancer and modern approaches to their diagnosis and treatment. Molecular oncology is an impressive example of how fundamental scientific knowledge about the structure of the genome and cellular regulatory systems is translated into drugs and diagnostic methods that save thousands of lives. And this book, despite the obvious drama of the chosen topic, is not about illness and death, but about life - its complexity, fragility and beauty.