Cancer research has reached a major turning point. The quality and
quantity of information gathered about this disease in the past twenty
years has revolutionized our understanding of its origins and behavior.
No one is better qualified to comment on these dramatic leaps forward
than molecular biologist Robert A. Weinberg, director of one of the
leading cancer research centers in the world. In One Renegade Cell,
Weinberg presents an accessible and state-of-the-art account of how the
disease begins and how, one day, it will be cured. Weinberg tells how
the roots of cancer were uncovered in 1909 and when the first
cancer-causing virus was discovered. He then moves forward to the
discovery of the role of chemical carcinogens and radiation in
triggering cancer, and relates the remarkable story of the discoveries
of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the master controllers of
normal and malignant cell proliferation. This book, which presumes
little prior knowledge of biology, describes the revolution in
biomedical research that has finally uncovered the forces driving
malignant growth. Drawing on insights that simply were not available
until recently, the discoveries presented in One Renegade Cell have
already begun to profoundly alter the way that we diagnose and treat
human cancers.