Overview

By the second half of the twentieth century, heart disease, cancer, and stroke had replaced infectious, epidemic diseases as the leading causes of death in the United States. After centuries of confusion about the basic causes of cancer, scientists are gaining insights into the factors that cause the loss of control of cell multiplication that is the fundamental characteristic of cancer. A cure for cancer remains elusive, but many promising experimental approaches to diagnosis and treatment, based on developments in immunology and molecular biology, were undergoing clinical trials by the end of the 1990s.

Background

Cancer is basically defined as a process that leads to the loss of control of normal cell division and multiplication. Cancer cells can form tumors that invade neighboring tissues and metastasize to establish tumors at distant sites in the body. The term "cancer" actually refers to...