Product Description

The Biology of Cancer is a comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date textbook written by a major researcher in the field. It clearly presents the principles of cancer biology in an organized and accessible fashion. The information unfolds through the presentation of key experiments which give readers a sense of discovery, and provides insights into the conceptual foundation underlying cancer biology.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59905 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 850 pages

Review
"The breadth of the topics covered, the clear writing style, the logical organization and the beautiful figures make The Biology of Cancer a classic text for any biologist interested in cancer....An additional strength of the book is the multimedia CD...Thus, The Biology of Cancer is not only a great read but also an outstanding learning tool." -- Nature Cell Biology (November 2007) vol. 9, no. 11

'There is no comparable text in cancer biology and no single book that is so current and informative'. -- Nature, November 30, 2006, Vol 444

This is an impressively thoughtful, beautifully balanced analysis of where we stand today in the critical attempt to understand, and thereby defeat cancer as a scourge on humanity. Not only is it the perfect text for a serious course on cancer biology, it should be read by every cancer researcher - Bruce Alberts, University of California, San Francisco, USA

The Biology of Cancer is no doubt the definitive statement on its topic today. -Science, 11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788

There is no comparable text in cancer biology and no single book that is so current and informative. -Nature, November 30, 2006, Vol 444

The Biology of Cancer, written by the distinguished American cancer biologist Robert Weinberg, is by far the most extensive of these new works and, as the product of a single author, is a remarkable achievement. The book is beautifully illustrated in full colour and well supplied with key review articles. It is extremely well written in language that should be accessible to the non-expert. Overall, this is a remarkable achievement that is by far the most comprehensive coverage of this field available. - The Times Higher Education Supplement, February 23rd 2007

The breadth of the topics covered, the clear writing style, the logical organization and the beautiful figures make The Biology of Cancer a classic text for any biologist interested in cancer...An additional strength of the book is the multimedia CD...¦Thus, The Biology of Cancer is not only a great read but also an outstanding learning tool.-Nature Cell Biology (November 2007) vol. 9, no. 11

This is an impressively thoughtful, beautifully balanced analysis of where we stand today in the critical attempt to understand, and thereby defeat cancer as a scourge on humanity. Not only is it the perfect text for a serious course on cancer biology, it should be read by every cancer researcher - Bruce Alberts, University of California, San Francisco, USA

The Biology of Cancer is no doubt the definitive statement on its topic today. -Science, 11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788

The Biology of Cancer is no doubt the definitive statement on its topic today. -- Science, 11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788

About the Author
Whitehead Institute at MIT, USA

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Customer Reviews

The State of the Art as it is Known Today.
This textbook, aimed at the advanced undergraduate and graduate biology and medical students covers the basic biology of cancer at the molecular andcellular level. Research into cancer in many different directions has been continuing at an accelerated pace since about World War II. In 1975 a major breakthrough was made by H.E. Varmus and J.M. Bishop on San Francisco. The result has been the creation of the new branch of biology covered by this book.

The amount of information discovered in the three decades since then has given us an immense database on the root causes of cancer. The basic discovery that cancer is not one disease but many, some 110 at last count, has led to vast amounts of data.

This book begins to lay out the underlying laws and principles that are beginning to emerge from that data. At the same time, this book is written as a recruiting pamphlet to attract new generations of researchers to move the science forward. While the book points out the discoveries that have been made, it also points out areas where questions remain.

At 850 pages, this is a large book, covering an immense amount of material. In addition there is a CD-ROM with even more material. It has figures, tables, micrographs loaded into Powerpoint presentations that cover each chapter which provides an excellent study aid. There are mini-lectures on various subjects. There are also several movies that will aid in the understanding of some of the processes involved.

A poster 'The Pathways of Human Cancer' summarizes many of the signaling pathways implicated in tumor development. This poster has been produced by Cell Signaling Technology.

The rate of development in the field means that this book will need a new edition shortly, but for the moment this represents the state of the art as it is known today.

Excellent, Fascinating, Well-Written
This is one of the best books that I have read on any topic. The science of cancer is fascinating because it involves almost all aspects of cell biology. This book presents the subject in a clear, well-organized manner based on the experimental evidence. The author draws conclusions carefully always including possible alternative explanations so the reader senses the full complexity of the problem. He expresses a welcome skepticism about current cancer treatments and frankly discusses the controversies involved. The author has successfully organized a huge body of information in a way that makes it easy to read and understand.

Comprehensive
As a colorectal cancer survivor, I've undertaken a self-study of my cancer in particular, and the disease in general. Saltz's Colorectal Cancer is the comprehensive text for me, but it is better read with a foundation in the nuts and bolts of the disease. Sompayrac's How Cancer Works is a wonderful text for explaining what the nuts and bolts are, but this book, Biology of Cancer, not only explains these in better detail, it also explains how researchers figured all this out. The illustrations, graphs and photos are worth the price of the book itself--you can see the discoveries unfold in front of your own eyes. You don't have to be a scientist to start reading it, but you will probably have to become something of a scientist and retain what you are absorbing as you progress through the book. This is a textbook that is something of an all-star collection of information from a variety of scientific research textbooks.