Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos

Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos
Author: Amelie G. Ramirez
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 303029286X

This open access book gives an overview of the sessions, panel discussions, and outcomes of the Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference, held in February 2018 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and hosted by the Mays Cancer Center and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. Latinos – the largest, youngest, and fastest-growing minority group in the United States – are expected to face a 142% rise in cancer cases in coming years. Although there has been substantial advancement in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment over the past few decades, addressing Latino cancer health disparities has not nearly kept pace with progress. The diverse and dynamic group of speakers and panelists brought together at the Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference provided in-depth insights as well as progress and actionable goals for Latino-focused basic science research, clinical best practices, community interventions, and what can be done by way of prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer in Latinos. These insights have been translated into the chapters included in this compendium; the chapters summarize the presentations and include current knowledge in the specific topic areas, identified gaps, and top priority areas for future cancer research in Latinos. Topics included among the chapters: Colorectal cancer disparities in Latinos: Genes vs. Environment Breast cancer risk and mortality in women of Latin American origin Differential cancer risk in Latinos: The role of diet Overcoming barriers for Latinos on cancer clinical trials Es tiempo: Engaging Latinas in cervical cancer research Emerging policies in U.S. health care Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos proves to be an indispensable resource offering key insights into actionable targets for basic science research, suggestions for clinical best practices and community interventions, and novel strategies and advocacy opportunities to reduce health disparities in Latino communities. It will find an engaged audience among researchers, academics, physicians and other healthcare professionals, patient advocates, students, and others with an interest in the broad field of Latino cancer.

Advancing the Science of Implementation Across the Cancer Continuum

Advancing the Science of Implementation Across the Cancer Continuum
Author: David A. Chambers (DPhil)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2018
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190647426

While many effective interventions have been developed with the potential to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality from cancer, they are of no benefit to the health of populations if they cannot be delivered. In response to this challenge, Advancing the Science of Implementation across the Cancer Continuum provides an overview of research that can improve the delivery of evidence-based interventions in cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship. Chapters explore the field of implementation science and its application to practice, a broad synthesis of relevant research and case studies illustrating each cancer-focused topic area, and emerging issues at the intersection of research and practice in cancer. Both comprehensive and accessible, this book is an ideal resource for researchers, clinical and public health practitioners, medical and public health students, and health policymakers.

The Science of Cancer

The Science of Cancer
Author: Scientific American Editors
Publisher: Scientific American
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2017-03-20
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1466859075

The past few years have seen tremendous strides in our understanding of cancer, including new hypotheses about its genetic origins and new treatment alternatives using the body’s own immune response. In this eBook, The Science of Cancer, we examine what we know and what we’re finding out about this scourge of humankind. We delve into the molecular basis and complex causes of cancer, the arguments for and against screenings, new and targeted therapies, and minimizing risk. In “How Cancer Arises,” Robert Weinberg presents what has been the central dogma of cancer genetics, which says that a handful of essential mutations in specific genes lead to tumor growth; however, recent discoveries are challenging this theory, as we see in “Untangling the Roots of Cancer” and “Stem Cells: The Real Culprits in Cancer?” Early detection of cancer is important for treatment, but not all screening tests are created equal. In “The Great Prostate Cancer Debate,” Mark Garnick lays out the controversy over the value of the prostate-specific antigen test for prostate cancer and the rationale against screening. With our increasing knowledge of cancer’s causes, exciting targeted therapies are on the rise, including homing in on stem cells, making use of viruses, and manipulating the immune system as we see in “A New Ally against Cancer,” which focuses on treatment with therapeutic vaccines. Does this mean a cure is around the corner? Perhaps not, according to Scientific American Editor Dina Fine Maron in “Can We Truly ‘Cure’ Cancer?” But with remission rates rising for certain types of cancers and with new discoveries opening up further avenues of research, there is reason for optimism.

The Cancer Book

The Cancer Book
Author: Geoffrey M. Cooper
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1993
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780867207705

Written in non-technical language, this book helps the reader understand the basic nature and causes of cancer, as well as the principles underlying current strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. By presenting an overview and perspective of both the basic and practical aspects of cancer, including the background needed to understand continuing advances in the field. The book is fascinating reading and an ideal book for everyone interested in the subject.

The Biology of Cancer

The Biology of Cancer
Author: Weinberg, Robert A.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2013-05-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0815345283

Incorporating the most important advances in the fast-growing field of cancer biology, the text maintains all of its hallmark features. It is admired by students, instructors, researchers, and clinicians around the world for its clear writing, extensive full-color art program, and numerous pedagogical features.

One in Three

One in Three
Author: Adam Wishart
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2008-01-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802143488

In Wishart's personal, journalistic take on the history of cancer, he offers an encouraging story of science's progress in changing the outlook on cancer from a disease that one dies from to one that can be lived with.

Rebel Cell

Rebel Cell
Author: Kat Arney
Publisher: BenBella Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1950665518

Why do we get cancer? Is it our modern diets and unhealthy habits? Chemicals in the environment? An unwelcome genetic inheritance? Or is it just bad luck? The answer is all of these and none of them. We get cancer because we can't avoid it—it's a bug in the system of life itself. Cancer exists in nearly every animal and has afflicted humans as long as our species has walked the earth. In Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal, Kat Arney reveals the secrets of our most formidable medical enemy, most notably the fact that it isn't so much a foreign invader as a double agent: cancer is hardwired into the fundamental processes of life. New evidence shows that this disease is the result of the same evolutionary changes that allowed us to thrive. Evolution helped us outsmart our environment, and it helps cancer outsmart its environment as well—alas, that environment is us. Explaining why "everything we know about cancer is wrong," Arney, a geneticist and award-winning science writer, guides readers with her trademark wit and clarity through the latest research into the cellular mavericks that rebel against the rigid biological "society" of the body and make a leap towards anarchy. We need to be a lot smarter to defeat such a wily foe—smarter even than Darwin himself. In this new world, where we know that every cancer is unique and can evolve its way out of trouble, the old models of treatment have reached their limits. But we are starting to decipher cancer's secret evolutionary playbook, mapping the landscapes in which these rogue cells survive, thrive, or die, and using this knowledge to predict and confound cancer's next move. Rebel Cell is a story about life and death, hope and hubris, nature and nurture. It's about a new way of thinking about what this disease really is and the role it plays in human life. Above all, it's a story about where cancer came from, where it's going, and how we can stop it.

Physics Of Cancer, The: Research Advances

Physics Of Cancer, The: Research Advances
Author: Bernard S Gerstman
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2020-12-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811223505

Cancer deaths per capita have decreased in recent years, but the improvement is attributed to prevention, not treatment. The difficulty in treating cancer may be due to its 'complexity', in the mathematical physics sense of the word. Tumors evolve and spread in response to internal and external factors that involve feedback mechanisms and nonlinear behavior. Investigations of the nonlinear interactions among cells, and between cells and their environment, are crucial for developing a sufficiently detailed understanding of the system's emergent phenomenology to be able to control the behavior. In the case of cancer, controlling the system's behavior will mean the ability to treat and cure the disease. Physicists have been studying various complex, nonlinear systems for many years using a variety of techniques. These investigations have provided insights that allow physicists to make unique contributions towards the treatment of cancer.This interdisciplinary book presents recent advancements in physicists' research on cancer. The work presented in this volume uses a variety of physical, biochemical, mathematical, theoretical, and computational techniques to gain a deeper molecular and cellular understanding of the horrific disease that is cancer.

Philosophy of Cancer

Philosophy of Cancer
Author: Marta Bertolaso
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2016-08-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9402408657

Since the 1970s, the origin of cancer is being explored from the point of view of the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT), focusing on genetic mutations and clonal expansion of somatic cells. As cancer research expanded in several directions, the dominant focus on cells remained steady, but the classes of genes and the kinds of extra-genetic factors that were shown to have causal relevance in the onset of cancer multiplied. The wild heterogeneity of cancer-related mutations and phenotypes, along with the increasing complication of models, led to an oscillation between the hectic search of ‘the’ few key factors that cause cancer and the discouragement in face of a seeming ‘endless complexity’. To tame this complexity, cancer research started to avail itself of the tools that were being developed by Systems Biology. At the same time, anti-reductionist voices began claiming that cancer research was stuck in a sterile research paradigm. This alternative discourse even gave birth to an alternative theory: the Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT). A deeper philosophical analysis shows limits and possibilities of reductionist and anti-reductionist positions and of their polarization. This book demonstrates that a radical philosophical reflection is necessary to drive cancer research out of its impasses. At the very least, this will be a reflection on the assumptions of different kinds of cancer research, on the implications of what cancer research has been discovering over 40 years and more, on a view of scientific practice that is most able to make sense of the cognitive and social conflicts that are seen in the scientific community (and in its results), and, finally, on the nature of living entities with which we entertain this fascinating epistemological dance that we call scientific research. The proposed Dynamic and Relational View of carcinogenesis is a starting point in all these directions.