Precancer. The Beginning and the End of Cancer

OVERVIEW

Nearly every type of cancer passes through a precancer phase, during which it cannot metastasize or invade other tissues. While medicine is not always successful in treating or curing advanced stages of cancers, recent advances in our understanding of carcinogenesis have helped us to develop strategies to prevent, diagnose, and treat many cancers at the precancer stage. Research in this field is escalating rapidly as the evidence increasingly shows that the number of annual cancer deaths could be drastically reduced through the effective treatment and cure of precancer lesions. This book begins by explaining why it has been so difficult to cure cancers, followed by a review of precancer biology, with descriptions of the most common precancer lesions. The final chapters provide practical socio-political and medical goals for precancer treatment, including discussions of the economics and politics of treating precancers.

KEY FEATURES

• Discusses the limitations of current approaches to cancer treatment and how early detection of precancer is key in cancer eradication.
• Discusses the pathological and biological properties of precancer and explains the fundamental changes in cells that characterize the precancers.
• Reviews the most recent approaches to precancer treatment currently under development.
• Three useful appendices complete the book. Appendix 1 assembles statistical data used in the text, and provides sources for each value. Appendix 2 explains precancer terminology. Appendix 3 describes the Developmental Lineage Classification and Taxonomy of Cancer.
• A glossary provides full explanations of specialized medical terminology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I Limitations of Current Approaches to Cancer Treatment
Chapter 1 The Cancer Burden
Chapter 2 Illusion of Cancer Survival
Chapter 3 Why We Have Not Learned How to Cure Advanced Common Cancers

Part II Precancer Pathology and Biology
Chapter 4 Guide to Pathologic Examination of Precancers (for Laypersons)
Chapter 5 Biology of Precancers
Chapter 6 Studying Precancers to Understand Cancers

Part III Eradication of Cancer By Treatment of Precancers
Chapter 7 Treating Precancers
Chapter 8 Politics of Precancers
Chapter 9 The End of Cancer

Appendix 1 Cancer Numbers
Appendix 2 Precancer terminology
Appendix 3 Neoplasm classification

References
Glossary
Index
Author biographies

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jules J. Berman, PhD, MD

Jules Berman received his bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Earth and Planetary Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. from Temple University, and his M.D. from the University of Miami. He received post-doctoral training in the Laboratory of Experimental Pathology in the National Cancer Institute, at NIH. He received residency training at the George Washington University Medical Center and is board certified in anatomic pathology and in cytopathology. He served as the chief of anatomic pathology at the VA Hospital in Baltimore where he held adjunct appointments at Johns Hopkins Medical Center and the University of Maryland Medical Center. From 1998 to 2005 he was program director for Pathology Informatics in the Cancer Diagnosis Program at the National Cancer Institute. Jules Berman has first-authored more than 100 publications. He is now a free-lance author and the past President of the Association for Pathology Informatics.