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© 2005 Oxford University Press
NEWS |
For Tissue Organization Theory of Cancer, A Difficult Road to Acceptance
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
For the past 30 years, molecular biology has been the old reliable workhorse of cancer research. Its reductionist, cut-through-the-complexity approach to biology has played a leading role in a number of research breakthroughs and has helped to establish what many consider to be an air-tight case for the somatic mutation theory of cancer, the dominant paradigm and model of the disease.
But in recent years, a few scientists have begun quietly publishing essays that ask, has oncology's heavy reliance on molecular biology become a liability in the race for a cure? As they note, not only has molecular biology narrowly defined much of the conceptual language of cancer research, it has also set its own self-fulfilling terms for victory, from hitting molecular targets to healing mutated genes.
Among the most steadfast of these editorialists are
Carlos Sonnenschein, M.D., and
Ana Soto, M.D., cancer
researchers at Tufts University in
Uncertain Path
The Book
Challenges