There have been
a significant number of advances in the field of cancer research since the first
edition of Cancer Biology, which was published in 1981. These include advances
in defining the genetic and phenotypic changes in cancer cells, the genetic
susceptibility to cancer, molecular imaging to detect smaller and smaller
tumors, the regulation of gene expression, and the ‘‘-omics’’ techniques of genomics,
proteomics, and metabolomics, among others. Yet, the goals of the fourth
edition of Cancer Biology remain the same as those of the earlier editions,
namely to provide a historical perspective on key developments in cancer research
as well as the key advances of scientific knowledge that will lead to a greatly
increased ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. Unfortunately, many aspects
of the exciting breakthroughs in our knowledge of basic cancer biology have yet
to be translated into standard care for patients. This will require an expanded
ability of basic scientists and clinical researchers to learn to speak each
other’s language and to collaborate on bringing basic research findings to the
bedside. A goal for this book, which may seem overly ambitious if not a bit
pompous, is to provide part of the lingua franca for these groups of
experimentalists to better communicate. Now more than ever it has become clear
that to achieve real breakthroughs in improving much needed diagnosis and
treatment of cancer and other multifaceted chronic diseases, an interaction is
required among researchers in many fields, including molecular biologists,
chemists, computational scientists, biomedical engineers, epidemiologists, and
health services researchers, as well as dedicated physicians, nurses, and other
health care professionals.
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