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Keynote address: The past, the present, the future
Author(s) -
Ho Reginald C. S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.2820710403
Subject(s) - medicine , carcinogenesis , acute promyelocytic leukemia , cancer , lung cancer , mechanism (biology) , leukemia , breast cancer , cancer research , oncology , bioinformatics , genetics , biology , gene , retinoic acid , philosophy , epistemology
Lung cancer in women has replaced uterine cancer among the cancers causing the highest mortality in women. However, breast cancer remains a leading cause of death because of increasing incidence. Potential causes for the increase in both these diseases in women will be explored. An exciting development in recent years has been the clarification of the role of oncogenes in carcinogenesis. It appears that some cancers require multiple sequential mutations for malignant transformation to occur. This may be the model for the study of carcinogenesis. These developments in molecular genetics have important implications in screening, diagnosis, prevention, and in treatment strategies. We may be witnessing the beginning of the era of cell differentiation therapy. Retinoids have a potential for impacting on the treatment of neoplasms such as promyelocytic leukemia and oropharyngeal cancers. Understanding of the mechanism of cell differentiation may be forthcoming although molecular genetic studies.