Cancer past, present, and future

摘要

In this detailed monograph, Guy Faguet, professor emeritus at the Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, GA, USA) adds his voice to the growing commentary on the status of the so-called war on cancer. By combining history, statistical analysis, medical literature, and his professional experience in the cancer clinic and laboratory, the author analyses the obstacles that have hindered the development of effective cancer therapies. Notably, Faguet not only provides an analysis of past practices and policies; he also surveys current work and recommends directions for future improvements in cancercontrol inthe USA. Faguet begins The War on Cancer by arguing that the federally funded health effort, first launched in 1971, was a misguided campaign that quickly stagnated. Faguet implicates clinicians, clinical researchers, their sponsors, publishers, and members of the mass media in this problem. Members of this group, he claims, promoted the cell-kill paradigm, a model that defined cancer as a new growth that needed to be eradicated at all cost. The core of the book is devoted to the biological mechanisms of cell growth and metabolism, the identification and testing of chemotherapy drugs, and the central role of the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MA, USA) in governing cancer research. Faguet concludes by outlining a new view of cancer as a genetic cellular dysfunction and posits that cancer control can be achieved through a three-armed programme of prevention, early detection, and genetic and molecular targeting.