Paperback: 320 pages

Many of the cells in our body undergo tightly regulated replication to enable growth to occur and to ensure that damaged or worn out tissues are replaced. Regulation is mediated via many different mechanisms. It is when these mechanisms fail, and regulation is lost, that cancer can result. Recent advances in molecular cell biology have greatly expanded our understanding of the processes and mechanisms which underpin the regulation of cell replication, and what is happening at the molecular level when these fail.

Now in its second edition, The Molecular Biology of Cancer: Mechanisms, Targets, and Therapeutics gives a fresh approach to the study of the molecular basis of cancer. Written with the undergraduate student in mind, Lauren Pecorino focuses on how our understanding of the defective mechanisms which drive cancer is leading to the development of new targeted therapeutic agents.

Opening with an overview of the key hallmarks of cancer as a disease state, the book then leads us through the principal components of the regulatory machinery through which cell division is controlled and corrupted with the onset of cancer. Within each chapter, students are shown how this molecular knowledge is being applied to develop new targeted therapeutic strategies.

Ideal for courses in the molecular biology of cancer and cancer biology, The Molecular Biology of Cancer, Second Edition, is an invaluable resource for any student wishing to gain insight into the molecular basis of the disease and formulate possible solutions for its effective control.

1: Introduction
2: DNA structure and stability: mutations vs. repair
3: Regulation of gene expression
4: Growth factor signaling and oncogenes
5: The cell cycle
6: Growth inhibition and tumor suppressor genes
7: Apoptosis
8: Stem cells and differentiation
9: Metastasis
10: Infections and inflammation
11: Nutrients, hormones, and gene interactions
12: The Cancer Industry: drug development and clinical trial design
13: Cancer in the future: focus on diagnostics and immunotherapy