Product Description
For everyone whose life has been touched by cancer, One Renegade Cell tells the story of the search for the ultimate causes of this dreaded disease. "One Renegade Cell…offers a breathtaking picture, both wonderfu... More >>
5 Comments
Extremely informative, written in interesting form like a scientific novel, a systematic mini-survey of the molecular biology of cancer. Takes you through 30 years of discovery, explaining how false expectations were replaced by the discovery in laboratories of right pathways. Among the useful pieces of information you’ll pick up: cancer cells are not destroyed by chemo and radiation, only some DNA damage occurs. Unless the p53 gene is little enough damaged, then the tumor is not stopped, and Weinberg explains why. He fully describes the 6 mutations that are required, over time, to produce a metastasizing tumor. My wish: that Weinberg would next write a book about cancer treatments.
I end with an aside for those who are in love with the red herring called “holism”, and imagine that “reductionism” is dead and of little or no use in the elucidation of complexity. The entire field of genetic and cancer discoveries, all of microbiology, is nothing but plain ol’ reductionism applied to very long molecules, molecules so long and often disordered in shape that new techniques of chemical analysis had to be invented (like PCR). This book and any standard text on molecular biology provides full evidence for the truth of my assertion.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book was recommended to me by a colleague. We worked in monoclonal antibody manufacturing and development, so I knew a thing or two about treatment of cancer, but I knew nothing about the disease itself. It’s an easy read (I read a lot of this book on the bike at the gym), it’s not boring at all, and it’s written clearly enough so that people with no biology knowledge at all can understand it, but that it’s still very interesting and informative to people that already have a science or engineering background. I would also highly recommend reading Robert Weinberg’s paper in Cell from 2000 titled The Hallmarks of Cancer. It’s a great supplement.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is an amzaing manuscript. By leading the reader through the key discoveries in modern molecular oncology , Weinberg is able to elucidate the hallmarks of carginogenesis in simple, yet comprehensive ways.
This is a must read for any doctoral student. However, Weinberg simple and entertaining language will be enjoyed by anybody who has an interest in the pathways that lead to cancer.
Rating: 5 / 5
this is a great book for people who know nothing about cancer and want to know. I had a chance to meet the author after he gave a lecture about his research and it was really awesome!
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a phenomenal book. It is fascinating and well written. I would recommend it to anyone, including non-scientifically minded readers. If there were ten stars I would have given them.
Rating: 5 / 5