RT Book, Section A1 Kinzler, Kenneth W. A1 Vogelstein, Bert A2 Valle, David L. A2 Antonarakis, Stylianos A2 Ballabio, Andrea A2 Beaudet, Arthur L. A2 Mitchell, Grant A. SR Print(0) ID 1181403505 T1 Introduction to Cancer Genetics Chapters T2 The Online Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease YR 2019 FD 2019 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071459969 LK ommbid.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1181403505 RD 2024/11/10 AB When the first edition of this book was published in 1960, chapters on cancer were neither numerous nor prominent. Although it was realized that some rare kindreds were prone to neoplasia, it was not known whether genes played a significant role in the common forms of cancer. Moreover, the biochemical and physiological bases of tumorigenesis were so poorly understood that it would have been impossible to write anything relating genes to cancer that was not speculative.This has now changed dramatically, due to the revolution in cancer research that has occurred in the last two decades. If this revolution were to be summarized in a single sentence, that sentence would be “Cancer is, in essence, a genetic disease.” Although cancer is complex, and environmental and nongenetic factors clearly play a role at many stages of the neoplastic process, the tremendous progress made in understanding tumorigenesis is in large part due to the discovery of the genes that, when mutated, lead to cancer. The eighth edition of this book pays tribute to this revolution by including over 40 chapters describing the genetics and biochemical basis of cancers of various organs.The genetics of cancer are clearly more complex than most of the other diseases described in this book. In this introductory chapter we attempt to answer some basic questions about this topic that hopefully will help put the chapters on cancer in perspective and explain their organization.