Reviews the origins of molecular oncology, including technologies for cancer analysis, key pathways in human malignancies, and available pharmacologic therapies.

Highlighting recent advances in our understanding of breast cancer, this book is intended for a wide audience as a reference book. Included are reviews of genetics, epigenetics, various aspects of cell and molecular biology, and several other areas of breast cancer that are aimed at determining new intervention sites for treatments and cures of the disease. The chapters are written by internationally recognized experts and include reviews of key topics in breast cancer research. Each chapter highlights the new aspects of specific research topics and the various impacts of designing new strategies as well as identifies new targets for therapeutic intervention. The topics addressed are selected to be of interest to patients, scientists, students, teachers, and anyone else interested in expanding their knowledge of breast cancer imaging, diagnostics, therapeutics, or basic biomedical research on breast cancer.

Tumor progression is driven by mutations that confer growth advantages to different subpopulations of cancer cells. As a tumor grows, these subpopulations expand, accumulate new mutations, and are subjected to selective pressures from the environment, including anticancer interventions. This process, termed clonal evolution, can lead to the emergence of therapy-resistant tumors and poses a major challenge for cancer eradication efforts. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine examines cancer progression as an evolutionary process and explores how this way of looking at cancer may lead to more effective strategies for managing and treating it. The contributors review efforts to characterize the subclonal architecture and dynamics of tumors, understand the roles of chromosomal instability, driver mutations, and mutation order, and determine how cancer cells respond to selective pressures imposed by anticancer agents, immune cells, and other components of the tumor microenvironment. They compare cancer evolution to organismal evolution and describe how ecological theories and mathematical models are being used to understand the complex dynamics between a tumor and its microenvironment during cancer progression. The authors also discuss improved methods to monitor tumor evolution (e.g., liquid biopsies) and the development of more effective strategies for managing and treating cancers (e.g., immunotherapies). This volume will therefore serve as a vital reference for all cancer biologists as well as anyone seeking to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.

This book reviews the current applications of molecular tools in cytopathology and provides a concise handbook for those who provide care in this era of personalized medicine. Specifically, the text provides a comprehensive and concise review of the emerging molecular tests available clinically in different subspecialities of diagnostic pathology. It reviews the current data of molecular testing already applied in cytopathology, discusses some of the biomarkers with potential utility in cytopathology in the near future and reviews the technical challenges in applying and validating molecular tools in liquid-based cytologic materials. Molecular Cytopathology will serve as a valuable resource for cytopathologists, cytotechnologists, pathology trainees, and clinicians with an interest in molecular applications in cytopathology.

Decades of research on the tumor suppressor p53 have revealed that it plays a significant role as a "guardian of the genome," protecting cells against genotoxic stress. In recent years, p53 research has begun to move into the clinic in attempts to understand how p53 is frequently inactivated in-and sometimes even promotes-human cancer. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine covers the rapid progress that has recently been made in basic and clinical research on p53. The contributors review new observations about its basic biology, providing updates on the functions of its isoforms and domains, the myriad stresses and signals that trigger its activation or repression, and its downstream effects on genome stability and the cell cycle that enforce tumor suppression in different cell and tissue types. They also discuss how p53 dysfunction contributes to cancer, exploring the various inherited and somatic mutations in the human TP53 gene, the impact of mutant p53 proteins on tumorigenesis, and the prognostic value and clinical outcomes of these mutations. Drugs that are being developed to respond to tumors harboring aberrant p53 are also described. This book is therefore essential reading for all cancer biologists, cell and molecular biologists, and pharmacologists concerned with the treatment of this disease.

Cancer continues to be one of the major causes of death throughout the developed world, which has led to increased research on effective treatments. Because of this, in the past decade, rapid progress in the field of cancer treatment has been seen. Recent Advances in Cancer Research and Therapy reviews in specific details some of the most effective and promising treatments developed in research centers worldwide. While referencing advances in traditional therapies and treatments such as chemotherapy, this book also highlights advances in biotherapy including research using Interferon and Super Interferon, HecI based and liposome based therapy, gene therapy, and p53 based cancer therapy. There is also a discussion of current cancer research in China including traditional Chinese medicine. Written by leading scientists in the field, this book provides an essential insight into the current state of cancer therapy and treatment. - Includes a wide range of research areas including a focus on biotherapy and the development of novel cancer therapeutic strategies. - Formatted for a broad audience including all working in researching cancer treatments and therapies. - Discusses special traits and results of Chinese cancer research.