A CONSPIRACY OF CELLS. THE BASIC SCIENCE OF CANCER.

Steen, R. Grant

ISBN 10: 0306445069 / ISBN 13: 9780306445064

Published by Plenum Press, 1993

About this Item

NY:Plenum Press. (1993). 427pp. With dust jacket. An excellent copy. Mild shelf-wear to jacket; some foxing to top edge of pages; otherwise a tight, clean copy. .

Seller Inventory # 17581

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A CONSPIRACY OF CELLS. THE BASIC SCIENCE OF CANCER.
• Publisher: Plenum Press
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306445069
• ISBN 13: 9780306445064
• Binding: hard cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Medical

About this title

Synopsis

Drawing on some 2,000 primary sources, Steen, a cancer researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, reveals the cutting edge of what researchers currently know about how cancer starts, develops, and responds to various treatments. He also examines in some depth 14 of the most common cancers. Steen believes in an aggressive approach to cancer and encourages patients to take an active role in combating their disease. Specifically directed to cancer patients but deserving of the widest possible audience. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Reviews

This book, written especially for the cancer patient, attempts to make the disease and its treatment less mysterious and less terrifying. Steen covers the pathology of cancer, its causes, and how tumors are formed as well as their growth and metastases in the first several chapters. Immune response and patient-tumor interactions are also covered. Two chapters provide overviews of cancer treatment: the first deals primarily with the treatments now in use or in clinical trials; the second deals with treatments that are becoming possibilities. Nearly half the book is devoted to the most common of the different types of cancer. Each of these chapters looks at a specific region of the body, explains the different forms the disease takes there, and looks into rates of occurrence, risk factors, natural history, or course of the cancer. Steen's contention that a "fully informed patient is better equipped to make . . . difficult choices" should provide an impetus for those suffering from this dreaded disease to read his book. But this is an important book for everyone because, as Steen says in his closing chapter, "if the present rates continue, 20% of us will die from cancer." Patrick Wall