The Elephant in the Room is a collection of short stories that creatively communicate the cancer patient’s journey. The stories, based on real-life accounts, are built around the idiosyncratic relationships between patients and their doctors. Using humor, empathy and wisdom, Jonathan Waxman explores the very human side of cancer as well as providing expert commentary on the clinical aspects of diagnosis and therapy of this disease. These stories comfort and entertain, inform and engage, and are a treat to read for anyone whose life has been affected by cancer.

Jonathan Waxman is a Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London and consultant physician to the Hammersmith Hospital. He founded The Prostate Cancer Charity, the first United Kingdom national organisation promoting research and patient support for this condition. He is a clinician who has helped develop new treatments for cancer, which are now part of standard practice. He is the author of around 400 research papers and chapters, eleven books on cancer, a book on medical negligence law and a novel, The Fifth Gospel. He directs a laboratory research group comprising 31 scientists, and a clinical trial group. He has raised funds for the building of the Hammersmith Cancer Centre whose spirit aims to combine the best of conventional and alternative therapies. He helped establish an All Party Parliamentary Group to improve cancer treatment and rationalise cancer research throughout the UK. He has developed and led successful and unsuccessful media campaigns to rationalise cancer treatments and change government health policy.