Scientists and physicians share overlapping interests in fundamental cancer biology and in the potential clinical ramifications of specific mutations in cancer cells. In this volume, they present their ideas on the role of oncogenes and their protein products in human tumors, with emphasis on diagnostic applications. They also review the medical implications of discoveries concerning the genetic basis of neoplastic disease. Topics include nuclear oncogene proteins; growth factors and their receptors; activation of ras, src, and raf oncogenes; chromosomal rearrangements associated with oncogene activation; gene loss in human cancers; the identification and potential function of anti-oncogenes ; the genetic basis for the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs; and DNA tumor virus oncogenes in some human cancers. Molecular Diagnosis of Human Cancer also includes technical advances, as well as data on the diagnostic and prognostic implications of particular oncogene alterations in a number of cancers, notably pediatric neuroblastoma, the myelogenous leukemias, and carcinomas of the colon, bladder, pancreas, and breast.