A simple lab test that could customize chemotherapy to the patient and save lives. Surely such a breakthrough would be hustled into widespread use? Not in A Test of Survival , and not in the real-life story that inspired it. Money is certainly at stake, as is status, power, loyalty to petrified ideas, and the fate of half a million people dying of cancer every year. Dr. Gus Ephraim toils for decades at the fringes of cancer research, stubbornly awaiting validation of his tumor test. He risks his marriage and more when he sets up a new lab in the Midwest, too close to wife number one and to Dr. Lyman Deering, renowned leader in the cancer establishment. As damage to his reputation, his livelihood, and his family piles up. Gus stops playing by the rules. Reluctantly, and prodded by an unlikely band of allies, he takes on the powers-that-be and their cash-register vision of cancer treatment in America. Ten percent of the royalties from this book will be donated to Gilda’s Club, a network of meeting places for the support of cancer patients, their families and friends.