Talk to Radical Remission like its author wrote you back.
Get the ideas that fit your life — not generic summaries.
- Chat with the book
- Audiobook-style main ideas
- Adapts to your life and goals
- Helps you take action
What it argues
Radical Remission is Kelly Turner's systematic study of cancer patients who experienced unexpected recoveries — cases where cancer regressed significantly or disappeared without conventional treatment, or after conventional treatment had failed. Turner, a researcher and psychotherapist who completed a PhD at the University of California Berkeley, analyzed over a thousand such cases and conducted extended interviews with survivors and alternative healers in ten countries to identify common factors. What she found was not one answer but a pattern of nine factors that appeared across cases regardless of cancer type, patient background, or treatment approach.
The nine factors Turner identified are: radically changing your diet, taking control of your health, following your intuition, using herbs and supplements, releasing suppressed emotions, increasing positive emotions, embracing social support, deepening your spiritual connection, and finding a strong reason for living. Turner is careful to note that these are factors common to cases of radical remission, not proven cures — correlation across case studies, however numerous, does not establish causation. She presents them as areas worth exploring, not as a protocol that guarantees survival.
What it gets right
- 1.
Radical remission — unexpected cancer regression without conventional treatment or after conventional treatment has failed — occurs more frequently than oncology literature acknowledges.
- 2.
Nine factors appear consistently across radical remission cases: dietary change, health agency, intuition, herbs and supplements, emotional release, positive emotions, social support, spiritual connection, and purpose.
- 3.
Taking active responsibility for treatment decisions — becoming a participant rather than a recipient in medical care — was among the most consistent factors across cases.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Kelly A. Turner is an American researcher and psychotherapist who completed her PhD at the University of California Berkeley, where she studied radical remission in cancer patients. She spent a year traveling to ten countries interviewing cancer survivors and alternative healers as part of her doctoral research, then spent several years analyzing over a thousand cases of radical remission from the medical literature. She founded the Radical Remission Project, which maintains a database of cases and survivor stories. Radical Remission, her first book, became a New York Times bestseller. She later published Radical Hope, a follow-up volume of additional survivor stories.
