Metabolic diseases and cancers account for half of all mortalities in the world, underscoring the significance of understanding the etiology of these diseases and developing effective therapies. Genomic research in the 21st century has brought cancer and metabolic disease, two once seemingly parallel ailments, as close to each other as they’ve ever been. Many genetic factors have been found to display functions regulating both cancer and metabolic disease. In this research topic: "Double-edged Swords: Genetic Factors That Influence The Pathogenesis of Both MetabolicDisease and Cancer", you will be introduced to individual genes, as well as genetic pathways that play important roles in influencing the progression of both metabolic disease and cancer. By no means covering an exhaustive list of genes qualified, this collection of articles rather serves as a precursor of what is yet to come in biomedical research. It paints the big picture of one of the major fields contributing to the future of “precision medicine”.

Genetic alterations in cancer, in addition to being the fundamental drivers of tumorigenesis, can give rise to a variety of metabolic adaptations that allow cancer cells to survive and proliferate in diverse tumor microenvironments. This metabolic flexibility is different from normal cellular metabolic processes and leads to heterogeneity in cancer metabolism within the same cancer type or even within the same tumor. In this book, we delve into the complexity and diversity of cancer metabolism, and highlight how understanding the heterogeneity of cancer metabolism is fundamental to the development of effective metabolism-based therapeutic strategies. Deciphering how cancer cells utilize various nutrient resources will enable clinicians and researchers to pair specific chemotherapeutic agents with patients who are most likely to respond with positive outcomes, allowing for more cost-effective and personalized cancer therapeutic strategies.

This volume examines in detail the role of chronic inflammatory processes in the development of several types of cancer. Leading experts describe the latest results of molecular and cellular research on infection, cancer-related inflammation and tumorigenesis. Further, the clinical significance of these findings in preventing cancer progression and approaches to treating the diseases are discussed. Individual chapters cover cancer of the lung, colon, breast, brain, head and neck, pancreas, prostate, bladder, kidney, liver, cervix and skin as well as gastric cancer, sarcoma, lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.

This comprehensive clinical nutrition textbook uniquely focuses on the clinical applications and disease prevention of nutrition, clearly linking the contributions of basic science to applied nutrition research and, in turn, to research-based patient care guidelines.

One of the most exciting areas of cancer research now is the development of agents which can target signal transduction pathways that are activated inappropriately in malignant cells. The understanding of the molecular abnormalities which distinguish malignant cells from their normal counterparts has grown tremendously. This volume summarizes the current research on the role that signal transduction pathways play in the pathogenesis of cancer and how this knowledge may be used to develop the next generation of more effective and less toxic anticancer agents. Series Editor comments: "The biologic behavior of both normal and cancer cells is determined by critical signal transduction pathways. This text provides a comprehensive review of the field. Leading investigators discuss key molecules that may prove to be important diagnostic and/or therapeutic targets."