Advances in Cancer Research 1. [antikvár]

PREFACE Cancer is a disease which has been recognized since ancient times, and which in every generation has claimed many victims of all ages and of all stations in life. Each generation through its medical practitioners has fought it with whatever ideas and tools were available at the time. It is a paradox that, as these ideas have become ever more clear and these tools ever more powerful, the proportion of individuals dying of cancer appears to have risen from year to year. Whatever the reason for these melancholy statistics may be, no matter whether they may be more apparent than real, it is not in the tradition of science to stand idly by in the face of this seeming failure. A society living in the midst of scientific miracles may rightly expect that this disease, like many others, should be comprehended and mastered. Although the comprehension and the successful therapy of a disease are not invariably related, it is the hope of rational men, confident in the scientific method, that if only a phenomenon were understood it could be controlled. Few more notable expressions of this faith in our time are evident than in the public and private support granted in many lands to the subject and field of cancer research. A host of scientific specialties has been marshaled to meet this challenge. As the search for the understanding of cancer proceeds, new scientific approaches develop and are emphasized, and older ones, for the time being perhaps, subside and diminish. The ebb and flow of ideas and experimental approaches in the field of cancer research, as in any of the creative areas of the arts and sciences, is a mysterious and inexplicable process. It is the purpose of the Editors that this and succeeding volumes of this series shall reflect this steady and inevitable march of the tides of our knowledge and increasing understanding. For this task, we must rely upon the generous cooperation of our colleagues in many lands, distinguished authorities in various branches of cancer research, to review, synthesize, and interpret the advances made in their individual areas of investigation. It is our hope that these pages will reveal from year to year the gallant and dedicated quest for comprehension and mastery of an ancient and elusive disease. The Editors January, 1953 vii