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Primary Liver Cancer pp 1–17Cite as

Concepts, Challenges and Perspectives in Cancer Research

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Abstract

Cancer is one of the most fatal diseases in the world. It caused almost 12% of all deaths in women and 14% in men in 2004, only next to cardiovascular diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases. After a century of combat against cancer, the outcome of cancer treatment has noticeably improved. For example, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer of the cervix and breast have lead to a high cure rate for these cancer patients in the early stage of the disease. In the past decade, the progress in innovation in radiotherapy equipment and the discovery of targeted chemotherapeutic drugs have noticeably improved the survival rate for certain types of cancer at the early or middle stages, such as some gastric, colorectal, nasopharyngeal, esophageal cancers and some histopathological types of malignant lymphoma. However, in spite of these achievements, the overall survival rate for cancer, particularly regarding hepatic cancer, pancreatic and small cell lung cancer and others has still not significantly increased. Therefore, we have to pay serious attention to the basic concepts of cancer biology, especially the mechanism of carcinogenesis, cancer development and its progression, to achieve the goal of 3P cancer medicine: the prevention (primary and secondary); the prediction of cancer as well as its clinical outcome, particularly metastasis; and the personalized treatment of cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No.25/Ln.2200, Xietu Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Jianren Gu, Wenxin Qin & Zhigang Zhang

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  1. Jianren Gu
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  2. Wenxin Qin
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  3. Zhigang Zhang
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© 2012 Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gu, J., Qin, W., Zhang, Z. (2012). Concepts, Challenges and Perspectives in Cancer Research. In: Primary Liver Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28702-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28702-2_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-28701-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-28702-2

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