How can new understandings about cancer cell interactions help doctors
better control, and eventually cure, cancer?
Cancer is a formidable enemy. In fact, people born in America since 1960
face a one in two chance of being diagnosed with cancer in their
lifetimes. However, there's growing evidence that fewer cancers will be
death sentences for patients. New approaches and understandings are
transforming the medical world, increasing success rates for remissions,
disease management, and cures. Dr. Ashani Weeraratna is at the forefront
of this new level of care.
In Is Cancer Inevitable?, Weeraratna--a pioneering melanoma researcher
whose work explores the role aging plays in cancer cells' spread and
drug resistance--gives readers an inside look at several of the latest
cancer advances. Detailing the actions that are reducing the disease's
impact and exploring what the future may hold, she explains how the
molecular mechanisms involved in metastasis and the cells'
microenvironments influence cancer's development and progression. Over
the years, she writes, our understanding of how cancer cells move
throughout the body, change as they plant themselves in the body's
microenvironments, and even communicate with one another have led to
major insights about how cancer works. With compelling detail, she takes
us inside her lab, revealing how new insights are leading to major
breakthroughs, even among patients with Stage IV cancer. She also
explains how age-related changes in the microenvironment contribute to
multiple aspects of melanoma formation and development. Such
scholarship, she argues, is moving us toward a day when more patients
will be declared cancer-free.
An inspiring and deeply personal book, Is Cancer Inevitable? offers
readers newfound hope.
Features
- Explores key insights and studies developed in recent years that have
greatly influenced the world of cancer research, including how aging
microenvironments within our bodies encourage metastasis and therapy
resistance
- Guides readers through Dr. Ashani Weeraratna's personal story of
coming to the United States from Lesotho at the age of 17 and rising to
become one of the pioneers in her field
- Brings readers inside Weeraratna's lab, describing both the processes
and the missions of her work
- Raises awareness about how cancer works within the body and what any
patient or family encountering the disease needs to understand--while
also offering them hope based on new and forthcoming diagnostic and
treatment methods
- Outlines why we will never control--let alone cure--cancer if we don't
find a common purpose and come together in collaboration, inviting the
greatest minds from around the world to participate in finding and
implementing solutions
Johns Hopkins Wavelengths
In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore and around
the world, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professors of Johns Hopkins
University are opening the boundaries of our understanding of many of
the world's most complex challenges. The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths book
series brings readers inside their stories, illustrating how their
pioneering discoveries benefit people in their neighborhoods and across
the globe in artificial intelligence, cancer research, food systems'
environmental impacts, health equity, science diplomacy, and other
critical arenas of study. Through these compelling narratives, their
insights will spark conversations from dorm rooms to dining rooms to
boardrooms.
