Product Description

The Biology of Cancer is a new textbook for undergraduate and graduate biology students as well as medical students studying the molecular and cellular bases of cancer. The book presents the principles of cancer biology in an organized, cogent, and in-depth manner.

This is [an] excellent textbook on the basic biology of cancer.

--Journal of Medicine

Each chapter unfolds as a fascinating tale, from the historical perspective, through key experiments, to interpretation and future challenges.  To get a good idea of the magnitude of this book, the reader must look beyond the imagery and illustrations, and read the numerous vignettes highlighted throughout the text, as well as the supplementary sidebars provided on the accompanying CD-ROM. Here Weinberg demonstrates the breadth of his understanding and insight, and discusses the problems still facing us. There is no comparable text in cancer biologyand no single book that is so current and informative. I hope that professionals and students in all spheres of cancer research will get to know The Biology of Cancer.

Nature, November 30, 2006, Vol 444

The Biology of Cancer is no doubt the definitive statement on its topic today.

SCIENCE, 11 August 2006, Vol 313, Issue 5788

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9724 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 850 pages

From the Back Cover

The Biology of Cancer is a new textbook for undergraduate and graduate biology students as well as medical students studying the molecular and cellular bases of cancer. The book presents the principles of cancer biology in an organized, cogent, and in-depth manner. The clarity of writing and the lucid full-color art program make the book accessible and engaging. The information unfolds through the presentation of key experiments which give readers a sense of discovery and provides insights into the conceptual foundation underlying modern cancer biology.

The Biology of Cancer synthesizes the findings of three decades of recent cancer research and proposes a conceptual framework from which to teach about these discoveries. It provides the necessary structure, organization, and content for a course on cancer biology for advanced undergraduates and beginning doctoral students. The book is comprehensive and offers many pedagogical features to assist teaching and learning. The book includes many recent and topical references, and is intended to empower the student to move directly into the primary research literature.

The text is up-to-date and provides current information on topics such as tumor stem cells and recently introduced chemotherapeutics. State-of-the-art techniques are discussed throughout. Modern biomedical research is explored, helping readers to hone their analytical abilities and to assimilate and think clearly about complex biological processes. The Biology of Cancer provides insights into many aspects of immunology, developmental biology, and neurobiology.

The exceptional full-color art program contains many images published for the first time. The book is extensively illustrated with schematic drawings, micrographs, computer-generated models and graphs. The pieces were chosen to support and clarify the concepts, as well as to supply additional interest.

Besides its value as a textbook, The Biology of Cancer will be a useful reference for individuals working in biomedical laboratories, and for clinical professionals.

About the Author
Whitehead Institute at MIT, USA

Customer Reviews

An absolute gem from one of the worlds leading cancer researchers
This books makes understanding the molecular basis of cancer enjoyable and relatively easy. The author - a giant in the field of cancer research - has given us a well presented and well written, if not always concise, account of the biology of cancer.

The chapters follow a natural order, but the book certainly doesn't need to be read linearly - one can dip in and out of chapters with ease, since each is 'relatively' self-contained. I would say though, if you are a beginner, it would be best to at least read the first few chapters for a solid grounding in the basics (i.e. fundamental genetics, the idea of mutations, and the multistep and clonal origin of cancer).

The author not only gives an account of the diseased state but also of the biological processes which are disregulated in cancer. These include apoptosis, cell signalling and cell cycle control. The book covers many different sciences from structural biology to histological analysis of tissue, but all are relevant to the underlying discussion of cancer.

The style of writing is easy to read, and it often feels more like a story than a factual assault. However, this style does mean you may have to read multiple paragraphs to get a point which could have been described in a few sentences. Nevertheless, i would not consider this a failing - it makes the read more enjoyable and therefore more informative.

The diagrams are excellent, especially the summary diagrams of signalling networks. Weinberg also includes many tissue sections and pictures from primary literature and well as protein structures. This broadens our horizons - the biochemist will get an insight into medical oncology while the medic will be informed about signalling and cancer at the level of protein interactions. This book really does have it all.

The 'Synopsis and Prospects' sections at the end of each chapter are always interesting to read. They give an overview of the chapter and provide more insight and future directions. A list of bullet points summarising the key concepts and the thought questions are also useful for revision. References are provided but these are very limited, perhaps due to the vast body of literature that is out there. The glossary and list of abbreviations are useful and this book is not without its own self-indulgent quotations at the start of each chapter.

Who is this book for? I am a final year undergraduate in biochemistry and molecular biology and this book was perfect as an introduction to cancer. After reading this (or parts of this) i felt confident about tackling the primary literature - an otherwise daunting task, given its size. I'm sure it would also be useful to medical and biology students, both undergrads and others moving into the field. In fact, anyone with a general interest in cancer (as long as they have a reasonable scientific background) would greatly benefit from reading this marvelous book.

Definitive text for understanding cancer
I am a master's student working in the cancer bioscience area of R & D. This book is excellent in all respects and I highly recommend it. I have seen other publications from this author in scientific journals and all are well written and informative and he has a very good reputation among scientists in the field. Chapters are intuitively structured and complete - figures are clear and enhance the text and the CD ROM has some great features including key figures in ppt format and audio lectures on specifics such as P53, metastases and molecular therapies. If you are starting out don't be put off by the depth of this book it takes you through the concepts in a clear and structured manor. I wish I had this book 3 years ago!!

Very informative and a good read
Surprisingly, this book is relatively easy to read - even when it deals with such a complex subject. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a little bit more detail of how cancer arises, the history of this disease and the future outlook on cancer specific drugs. You don't need to be a specialist to read this book, although the more science background you have the more you will get out of it.