What happens when a world-class oncologist faces the very monster she has spent her life fighting, not just in her clinic, but in her own home?
Readers Without Borders (RWB), in collaboration with the Southasia Peace Action Network (Sapan), invites you to a deeply moving and vital conversation with acclaimed author and physician Dr. Azra Raza. We will discuss her groundbreaking medical — and deeply personal — book, The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last.
Blending the authoritative scholarship of The Emperor of All Maladies with the profound personal resonance of When Breath Becomes Air, Dr. Raza examines the current state of cancer treatment and the devastating impact of the disease on patients and their families, including her own.
About the book
In The First Cell, Dr. Azra Raza offers a searing account of how both modern medicine and our society mistreat cancer, exploring how we can do better and why we must. The book acts as a lyrical journey from hope to despair and back again, analyzing cancer through medical, scientific, cultural, and deeply human lenses.
Dr. Raza writes with unforgettable vulnerability about bearing the terrible burden of serving as her husband’s oncologist as he succumbed to leukemia. This is no ordinary book of medicine; it is an exploration of wisdom and grace by an author who has devoted her life to making the unbearable easier to bear.
Event details
This event is free and public, and will be hosted live via Zoom. Please find the time for your specific zone below and plan to join us early.
- Date: Saturday, 18 July 2026 | Time: 10:30 am EST | 9:30 am CST | 7:30 am PST | 7:30 pm PKT
Whether you are a medical professional, a caregiver, a literary enthusiast, or someone whose life has been touched by cancer, Dr. Raza’s insights offer a path toward understanding the true human cost of healing.
We look forward to seeing you there. Also, watch Dr. Raza in this episode of Sapan Stories:
I heard Dr Azra Raza speak candidly about cooperation between India and/ Pakistan and other neighbouring countries in the field of medicine . I for one wholeheartedly agree with her .
My late father served in the Indian Army . He was posted in various Hospitals in Pakistan . I would love to visit those places before I depart . I am
79 years of age now . What hope do I have of ever being granted a Visa to visit those places before. I hear Lahore is a most beautiful city . One has not completed his life until he has visited Lahore . How unfortunate I am . There must be thousands like me . We can’t visit each other’s Country . Pakistan is my Country also . We were one before 1947 . We must restore unrestricted travel just like European Union . It may not happen in my lifetime but I hope it does happen one fine day . We wait for that day .