Description

AVAILABLE MAY 2027

What if cancer treatments could be targeted more precisely, without inflicting damage on healthy tissues?

A physician and cancer researcher recounts how he took this experimental idea and turned it into a groundbreaking drug that would save thousands of lives worldwide—despite long odds, countless setbacks, and five decades of refusing to give up.

In Risks, Rewards, and the Cost of Hope, Dr. David M. Goldenberg, MD, pulls back the curtain on some of the most monumental developments in the treatment of cancer, chronicling his pioneering work with highly selective antibodies. When the University of Kentucky declined to invest in his invention, he founded Immunomedics, building it from the ground up into a billion-dollar biotechnology company. Its breakthrough antibody-drug received FDA approval for patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer and was later acquired by Gilead Sciences for $21 billion. Known today as Trodelvy®, the drug has treated more than 75,000 patients in over 60 countries.

Raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by immigrant parents from Poland and Ukraine, Goldenberg defied expectations from an early age. At just 16, he entered college under a Ford Foundation Early Entrance scholarship, graduating from the University of Chicago. His path soon took him to Germany, where, as a young Jewish scientist, he pursued advanced training, built a family, and launched his transformative cancer research. Mentored by scientific giants including Min Chiu Li, MD, he learned to challenge conventional thinking and persist even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Awe-inspiring and hopeful, Risks, Rewards, and the Cost of Hope is an intimate yet candid account of defying expectations, enduring countless challenges and rejections, and pushing the boundaries of scientific creativity and ingenuity.

Back to Top