A Guide to Harnessing the Advances of the ‘Lucky Years’

Health care isn’t a right; it’s a responsibility. That’s one of the premises of The Lucky Years by oncologist David Agus ’87. What Agus calls “the lucky years” is the era we live in now, the first time “we have at our disposal all the information we need to design our own health.” Thanks to a wealth of technology and data available, those living in developed countries have the potential to live longer than ever. But with those advances comes the potential for confusion and misinformation.

Drawing on his experience as a physician and a biomedical researcher, Agus writes about everything from genetic testing to mobile apps, helping readers navigate the sometimes contradictory information about new technologies and debunking misconceptions, such as the necessity of surgery to cure appendicitis. (In 2015, he writes, studies showed that 70 percent of appendicitis patients who took antibiotics did not need surgery.) He also addresses advances in cancer treatment, such as the benefits and perils of sequencing tumors to reveal gene variants that can be targeted with drugs.

Agus is a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California and the director of USC’s Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine. He also is the author of The End of Illness and A Short Guide to a Long Life.