Principles of Molecular Oncology

At the midpoint of the 20th century, our knowledge of cancer was based on epide- ology and pathology, and treatment consisted of surgery and radiation therapy. At mid-century, Medawar and colleagues initiated the understanding of transplantation immunology, Farber described the first use of an antifolic drug to treat leukemia, and Jacobson and coworkers described the irradiation-protection effect of spleen cells. These observations opened the door to the development of chemotherapy and tra-...