Three Disciplines' Views and Approaches to Cancer Research

Basic Sciences and Human Biology

What is the focus of research in Basic Sciences and Human Biology?

• Analysis of mutational defects in cancer cells to determine the role of a non-mutated gene in normal cells.
  
  
• Understanding normal cell processes that may go awry in cancer cells.
  
  
• Use of a variety of model organisms (mice, worms, flies, yeast, bacteria) in which the normal cellular processes can more easily be dissected than in humans.
  
  

The Causes of Cancer: A Molecular Biologist's View

adapted from a seminar given by Steve Collins, M.D. 1-97

Scientists doing laboratory research on cancer use the tools of molecular biology to evaluate changes in cancer cells and determine the role of mutant cancer genes in producing changes in cell function. Dr. Steve Collins summarized the cellular and molecular understanding of general changes seen in cancer cells compared with normal cells. Our understanding of how one cell escapes its fate and multiplies out of control in humans is often based on studies in organisms much simpler and more amenable to laboratory manipulations than humans. Exchange of information and methodology between laboratory, clinical, and public health research can influence the design of laboratory experimentation, clinical treatment and population studies.

	Molecular Biology of Cancer
	Approaches
	Interface