A critical perspective in cancer research (Review)

Over the past few decades, there has been a tremendous increase in cancer biology data and treatment. Cancer research has opened exciting new areas of cellular and molecular biology. Month by month, new genes which regulate the carcinogenesis process are being discovered. The result is an incredible knowledge of cancer: what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell, what cancer cells need to develop, and how cancer cells behave, interact, overgrow and die. In parallel, gene manipulation within cells lets us foresee future possibilities of new cancer treatments. On the other hand, this combination of increased knowledge and powerful new techniques has provided no effective cancer therapy. As it has been quoted during the meeting held in New York, August 1999: <. The success in treating Hodgkin's disease means that patients now live enough to develop complications related to the treatment>. Thus, after dedicated decades of excellent research, cancer remains a significant human, clinical, and economical burden. The purpose of this review is 2-fold. First, to analyze areas of basic cancer research that still await adequate scientific explanations. Second, to stress that, for its continuing advancement, cancer research is dependent upon close relationships among many disciplines; an intimate alignment of oncologists with biochemists, geneticists, immunologists, experimental pathologists, and pharmacologists is needed. In light of the great success registered at the basic science level but lack of effective therapies, it would be wise to establish human and economical resources addressed to a multidisciplinary collaborative effort in cancer research.