Introduction to Cancer Biology

In truth, it represents an embarrassment of riches. The scientific literature on cancer pathogenesis has grown explosively and today encompasses millions of research publications. And we knew that individual cancer cells extracted from tumors behave very differently than their counterparts in normal tissues.

This is in sharp contrast to the state of affairs in 1975, when the sequencing of oligonucleotides represented a formidable task! The techniques of genetic analysis, which were quite primitive at the beginning of this period, have advanced to the stage where we can sequence entire tumor cell genomes in several days. The scientific literature on cancer pathogenesis has grown explosively and today encompasses millions of research publications.

Introduction to Cancer Biology - Book Preface Compared with other areas of biological research, the science of molecular oncology is a recent arrival; its beginning can be traced with some precision to a milestone discovery in 1975. So much information would seem to be a pure blessing.