Cancer: The Enemy from Within. A Comprehensive Textbook of Cancer’s Causes, Complexities and Consequences

1. The nature and origins of cancer

• Cancer as a family of diseases coming from normal cells using normal cell traits in abnormal ways
• Cancer as a developmental process
• Organization / taxonomy of the neoplasias/ terminology

2. Principles of cancer initiation, promotion and progression

• Mutation, growth, clonal heterogeneity
• Principles of cancer pathology: form and function and deviation from normal
• Key concepts of invasion and metastasis

3. Behavioral hallmarks of cancer

• Key behavioral traits that allow cancer cells to outcompete normal cells
• Molecular basis of these key behaviors
• Cancer as an evolutionary system
• Caner as a complex adaptive system

4. History of cancer - how did we get here?

• Transformative discoveries
• Major advances in cancer biology, etiology, and treatment - foundations for current thinking and present day practice

5. Who gets cancer and why?

• Cancer epidemiology worldwide
• Causal risk factors
• Non-causal risk factors

6. Screening

• Why do it?
• What does it take?
• What works and what are the recommendations?

7. Diagnosis and Assessment

• Detection and diagnosis
• Classification: type, grade, stage, molecular features
• Prognostic factors, predictive factors and treatment planning

8. Localized treatment of cancer

• Principles and types of oncologic surgery
• Principles and types of radiation therapy
• Other ablative therapies

9. Systemic therapy

• Cytotoxic drugs
• Hormonal therapies
• Targeted therapies
• Immunotherapies: (+CAR-T genetic engineering) current reality, future vision
• Therapy as selective pressure and the emergence of resistance
• Principles of therapy: efficacy, toxicity; cost-benefit

10. End of Life Issues: Personal and Medical

• Palliative care: what it is and how it is used
• Overuse of therapy at end of life
• Hard decisions: when to stop treatment

11. Development of new cancer therapies: evolution and revolution

• The ethical, economic, and scientific aspects of translational cancer research
• Regulatory requirements
• The evolution of clinical trials

12. Cancer and society

• Cancer and the law: Right to Die; Right to try
• Cancer as big business
• Economics of cancer care delivery: Who pays and for what? Who decides?

This comprehensive, ground-breaking title presents, in simplifying style, the driving and organizing principles of cancer, making this multidimensional, highly complex disease easily understandable for readers. Developed out of the renowned author's many years of teaching a widely popular, several-hundred-student college course, this 12-chapter book begins with an account of the history of cancer as a medical and public health problem, as well as the major milestones and setbacks in the ongoing quest to understand the wide variety of cancers that continue to impact the world. Subsequent chapters then address pathogenesis, incidence and mortality statistics, risk factors, causal factors, screening challenges and victories, treatment strategies, and disease prevention approaches. This wealth of clinical information is further supplemented with socioeconomic discussions on the financial, social, ethical, technological, regulatory, political, and logistical challenges that limit progress in cancer research. A soon to be gold-standard text that thoroughly and expertly describes cancer as a composite, adaptive system, Cancer: The Enemy from Within equips and empowers all undergraduate students and graduate students to better understand this continually perplexing disease. Clinicians across all disciplines may also find this work of great interest.

Carolyn Compton, MD, PhD, FCAP
Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Barrett Honors Faculty, Arizona State University
Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Adjunct Professor of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
CMO, National Biomarker Development Alliance
Tempe, AZ 85281 - USA