‘Cancer’ miniseries mixes science, history, personal stories

It just sounds daunting: A six-hour documentary miniseries on cancer, from ancient times to the present day, encompassing research, case studies and a large dose of death. Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies makes for difficult viewing. Good thing the rewards are so ample.

Airing Monday through Wednesday on PBS (Channel 13), Emperor takes a deep dive into science history but maintains a necessary human touch and keeps one foot planted firmly in the here and now. The story is packed with heroes and fraught with massive setbacks that seem to follow every major advance. The villain, of course, is the title character, the wily, avaricious Emperor that leaves a trail of corpses in its wake.

"This set of diseases is so complicated and intractable and devious," says director Barak Goodman, in Dallas for a recent preview screening. "It's evolution sped up a billion times. It adapts to whatever you hit it with. You hit it with a certain drug, it might work for a few weeks or months and then the cancer changes and morphs and moves around it. That part of the story was sobering, to say the least."

There's plenty sobering about the miniseries, which is based on the 2010 Pulitzer-winning nonfiction book by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee. As the subtitle of the book says, this is a biography of cancer. It's also a very human tale, an essential quality for a project that doesn't shy away from hefty scientific concepts.

Emperor shines a light on researchers, surgeons, advocates and, most important, patients. Philosophical, financial and moral questions come into play: How do you tell someone that recovery is unlikely? How long should an iffy medical trial continue? And, as Mukherjee asks in the final episode, "What am I willing to pay for how many months of life?" As the price of cancer drugs has skyrocketed and federal funding has been slashed, such tragically surreal matters are rarely far from the cancer patient's mind.

The miniseries starts Monday with some historical overview and an emphasis on pediatric leukemia. Emperor takes a little while to find its groove and settle into the rhythm it eventually masters in the second and third installments, which focus on breast cancer and advances in immunology, among other subjects. At its best, the miniseries weaves science and history into the lives of patients and physicians fighting cancer as filming progresses.

Among those we follow are Lori Wilson, a cancer surgeon who faces her own bilateral mastectomy after she's diagnosed with breast cancer; and Doug Rogers, a retired NASCAR mechanic who undergoes a recent and very encouraging immunological procedure. Such segments are critical to Emperor's impact. Spending time with real people on their treacherous personal roads brings a sense of immediacy unattainable through historical case studies.

"We had to find families willing to take this journey with us and with a camera crew," Goodman says. "That narrowed it down. We knew we wanted pediatric leukemia in the first episode, because the history is largely about pediatric leukemia. We knew we wanted breast cancer for the second episode. Beyond that it was sort of blind luck."

Emperor of All Maladies, which was produced by Ken Burns, leaves you with a sense of the despair at the strength and adaptability of this formidable foe. It drives home the point that cancer is many different diseases without one specific cure. There's also hope here. The mapping of the human genome had helped scientists and doctors identify complex combinations of altered genes that cause cancer. The last few years have seen huge advances in immunology, in which the human immune system is enlisted as a primary weapon against cancer.

"The bright light of hope is immunotherapy," Goodman says. "That's the one way you can foresee cancer being permanently stopped."

We're not there yet, and the most sobering fact is we may never be. "The whole word cure is a bit misleading," Goodman says. "It's not like we're ever going to have a pill and you're done. Fighting cancer is about keeping it at bay, keeping it suppressed, containing it, extending life."

Learning more never hurts, either. Watching Emperor of All Maladies is a worthwhile way to start.

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies

8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, PBS (Channel 13). 2 hrs. nightly.