This book is not about so-called alternative medicine. It is about standard, orthodox medicine that had many good treatments for cancer up until the early 20th century. For reasons of power and control of the population, it was decided around 1910 that only radiation and surgery would be the approved treatments (and chemo was later added in the 1950s).

Maxwell shows how physicians who tried to use the older methods were threatened with loss of their medical license or were more harshly punished. These include Emanuel Revici, Virginia Livingston, and Robert Lincoln. She also argues that Edward Jenner engaged on fraud re smallpox vaccination.