Understanding Cancer. An Introduction to the Biology, Medicine, and Societal Implications of this Disease

Description:

Understanding Cancer is a brand new undergraduate textbook for students without prior training in biology that integrates an introduction to cancer medicine with descriptions of the biological processes that go wrong to cause cancer’s onset and progression. It also highlights the human side of cancer with stories of patients and loved ones touched by the disease, dealing with diagnosis, treatment, and the prospect of death as well as the broader societal aspects of cancer and its prevention. Key discoveries that have improved our understanding of cancer are presented in sidebars. In spite of this diversity, the book maintains precision and simplicity in describing what is and is not known about cancer, describing the strengths and limitations of current treatments

Table of Contents:

Student and Instructor e-Resources

Acknowledgments

1 Cancer and the Biology of Human Cells

Learning goals

What is a cell? The basics

When normal cells misbehave

Current treatments of cancer and prospects for the future

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further reading

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

2 Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, and Prognosis

Learning goals

Simple screens to identify potentially cancerous growths

Characterizing a potentially cancerous lesion

Modern instrumentation to image a patient’s insides

Evaluating the results from cancer screening tests and medical imaging

Cancer prognosis: understanding what a diagnosis means

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further reading

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

3 The Organization of Normal Human Cells

Learning goals

How scientists study cell structure

The structures of cellular macromolecules

Macromolecules in the context of cell structure

Protein fibers for cytoplasmic structure and function

Regulating a cell’s many processes

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

4 How Normal Cells Reproduce and Differentiate

Learning goals

Cell growth and division cycles

Cell differentiation as an alternative to cell growth and division

Signaling between cells

How cells cope with mistakes

Checkpoints arrest cell cycle progression to improve the fidelity of cell reproduction

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

5 Factors that Promote the Cancerous Transformation of Cells

Learning goals

Carcinogenic radiation

Carcinogenic chemicals

Carcinogenic viruses

Cancer risk through inheritance and lifestyle

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

6 Oncogenes and their Roles in Cancerous Transformation

Learning goals

Cancer transmission by certain animal viruses

The discovery of oncogenes in cancer cells

Pursuing the functions of oncogenes and their products

The discovery of oncogenes through analysis of dna sequence

The many genetic changes needed for cancerous transformations that lead to malignancy

Changes that contribute to the immortality of cancer cells

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

7 Tumor Suppressors and their Roles in Resisting Cancerous Transformation

Learning goals

Dna repair as a cancer-inhibiting process

Tumor suppression by regulators of cell cycle progression

Cancer-inducing mutations and apoptosis

It takes multiple mutations to complete a cancerous transformation

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

8 Medical Treatments for Cancer

Learning goals

Diagnostic methods set the stage for cancer treatment

Surgery

Radiation treatment

Chemotherapy

New chemotherapies from basic cancer research

Alternative medicine and cancer

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

9 The Immune System and its Relationship to Cancer

Learning goals

Innate immunity

Adaptive immunity

Humoral adaptive immunity

Cellular adaptive immunity

The immune system and prevention of cancerous progression

The immune system and cancer treatment

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

10 A Perspective on Cancer Futures

Learning goals

Progress in screening for and characterizing cancer

Progress in cancer diagnosis

Progress in cancer treatment

New immunological approaches to cancer therapy

Integrated approaches

Can the costs for this kind of progress be borne, and will they be worth it?

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

11 Minimizing Cancer Risk

Learning goals

Chance as a component of cancer risk

Inherited cancer risk and possible actions to reduce it

Reducing the environmental component of cancer risk

Diet and cancer risk

Behavior and cancer risk

Medical efforts to reduce cancer risk and problems with their implementation

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Questions for further thought

Answers to side questions

12 Living with Cancer

Learning goals

Point of view

A focus on life, not death

Seeing cancer treatments for what they are

Remission and the renewal of hope

Coping with pain

Dealing with physical weakness

Choosing an environment

Caring for cancer caregivers

Summary

Essential concepts

Key terms

Further readings

Answers to side questions

Glossary

Index