Quotes of the Day

The Battle Against Cancer
Re "The Conspiracy to End Cancer" [April 1]: While the article adeptly describes new developments in the analysis of cancer tissues, the cover page is an unhappy oversimplification. The sentence "Yes, it's now possible to cure cancer — thanks to new cancer dream teams" is a source of great concern to oncologists like me. Cancer patients are very alert to the media when their central theme is at stake, and they will interpret the cover to imply that if your oncologist is part of a "dream team," you will be cured. Any oncologist not able to reduce mortality will be judged. The fact remains that certain types of cancer are incurable. Patients will confront their doctors with unrealistic expectations, and there will be much suffering on both sides of ensuing discussions.
Bernhard Pestalozzi,
Zurich

No doubt it is of utmost importance to find new ways to cure cancer. Regrettably, only one line in the story mentions the manipulation of epigenetic functions as a result of environmental chemicals — i.e., the thousands of pollutants we eat, drink, breathe and inject day after day into our cells. What about their impact? Who's studying this part of the problem? The first goal should be to prevent cancer. Until research is extended outside the narrow medical ecosystem (and duly funded), no dream team will find the definite solution, and disease will always win the race.
Jean Lazzarotto,
Neuvecelle, France

I was skeptical upon seeing the cover page, but Bill Saporito did the title justice. And the message is one that applies beyond cancer. As a medical student, I have always been reluctant to consider a career in research. I've met researchers who spend their time fighting for grants, cooped up in lonely offices, waiting decades for results and recognition. The team-science strategy is a breath of fresh air, and with results happening so fast in cancer, we can only hope this exciting approach spreads to all other areas of medicine.
Madelaine Gimzewska,
Edinburgh

Fixing India
Re "The Troubleshooter" [April 1]: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled India for about nine years. It seems inevitable now that the country is ruled again by a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi looks to be trying to capitalize on a factious opposition, win the 2014 election and crown her son Rahul as Prime Minister. True, Palaniappan Chidambaram has the intellect and discipline to be Prime Minister, but he lacks the charm and charisma of the central dynasty.
Kangayam R. Narasimhan,
Chennai, India

India has ambitious, young and educated entrepreneurs willing to turn around the economy, but the system is burdened at every stage by the government's bureaucratic maze. Being part of a coalition government with notorious opposition parties, Finance Minister Chidambaram can only do gedankenexperiments and draw up plans sans real execution. Unless the country transitions into a two-party system like that of the U.S., India's government cannot implement any growth-friendly reforms effectively.
Suresh K. Parappurath,
Bangalore, India

Anti-Semitism in Hungary
It's amazing to me that anti-Semitism in Europe still fills us with wonder ["An Ancient Fear Rises Anew," April 1]. Europe and anti-Semitism are bound together like salt and pepper on a table. Who can imagine a Europe without it? From the western shores of Portugal to the eastern shores of Russia, Jews have had little peace through the ages.
Ron Ziv,
Gesher Haziv, Israel

The article suggests that Hungary is becoming once again hostile to Jews. It should be noted that the Hungarian government, led by the center-right Fidesz party, established the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, enacted a law that makes Holocaust denial a crime and declared a memorial day for Holocaust victims.
Karoly Schultz,
Mohacs, Hungary

Talking Drones
Michael Crowley did a yeoman's job by laying all the facts bare ["So, Who Can America Kill?" April 1]. While it's good that U.S. politicians are talking about drones, it is also important that they start talking about the limitations of democracy as a mechanism for decisionmaking in a combat situation. The very idea of a military operation and democratic orders sounds somewhat like a contradiction in terms.
Olusola Sanni,
Abuja, Nigeria

Iraq's Lost Decade
Re "Captured in War" [April 1]: The photographs remind us that the invasion of Iraq was a war crime in itself. From a European point of view, the French and the Germans can be happy and proud for having had governments at the time that formed a "coalition of the unwilling," refusing to support a pre-emptive war that wasn't justified by international law.
Thomas Klingenheben,
Bonn, Germany