Book excerpt: The third edition of this repected textbook has been extensively revised and updated by the authors and editors to achieve the same objectives as the two earlier editions -- to provide a relatively brief but comprehensive introduction to the initiation, development, and treatment of cancer.After an introduction describing the pathology and natural history of the disease, subsequent chapters survey particular areas of research, concentrating on the principles involved and recent developments. Each topic is reviewed authoritatively by acknowledged experts, in a way that will beunderstood by non-experts in the field.The chapters on epidemiology, genetic and chromosome changes, oncogenes, chemical and radiation carcinogenesis, growth factors, the biology of human leukaemia, and hormones and cancer have been rewritten and/or extensively revised and new developments resulting from the wide application of currenttechniques in cellular and molecular biology to the study of cancer are included. Other chapters have been revised and brought up to date, and new chapters are inclueed on cytokines and cancer, the molecular pathology of cancer, and cancer prevention and screening.Introduction to the Molecular and Celluar Bilogy of Cancer provides a general survey of the whole field of cancer as a basis for research and will serve as a valuable introduction to students and scientists new to the field.