Crave: The Hidden Biology of Addiction and Cancer

Whether you're hooked on heroin or sugar, addiction leaves molecular traces. Crave explores how everyday habits-binging, numbing, coping-quietly alter our biology in ways that can promote cancer. From processed foods and nicotine to compulsive overwork and digital overstimulation, this book redefines addiction as a critical, underrecognized factor in cancer risk. As a professor and scientist at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Raphael E. Cuomo brings over a decade of research experience in substance use, cancer outcomes, and public health disparities. With clarity and scientific rigor, Crave translates emerging science into a narrative that resonates with a broad readership: grounded, actionable, and urgent. Crave invites readers to reconsider what they think they know about addiction-not just as a mental health issue, but as a biological process that reshapes long-term cancer risk.