A new Ken Burns-produced documentary on cancer premiering on PBS later this month features several patient stories and interviews conducted with clinicians and scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies" will air nationwide on PBS stations on March 30, March 31 and April 1. The six-hour documentary, for which Burns was the executive producer and chief creative consultant, will air in three two-hour episodes at 9 p.m. each night.
The Cancer Center was one of two facilities where documentarians filmed clinicians and patients "in their daily journey with cancer," according to a news release on the project from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center office of public affairs.
Dr. William Nelson, the center's director, was quoted in the news release as saying, "Because cancer is so feared and is now ranked by the World Health Organization as the deadliest of all diseases, we participated in this documentary to shine a light on the people working to cure it and prevent it, and to help patients and families tell their stories."
Filmmakers worked off and on at the Cancer Center from October 2012 through the spring of 2014, according to Hopkins.