Magic Bullets

The search for a “cure” for cancer is the greatest epic in the history of science. It spans centuries and continents and is full of its share of heroes, villains, and sudden vertiginous twists. Sidney Farber defied conventional wisdom in the late 1940s, introducing the modern era of chemotherapy, eventually galvanizing a full-scale national “war on cancer.” Little Olivia Blair was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia at 14-months old, which spreads to her brain and spinal column.