Curing Cancer: The Story of the Men and Women Unlocking the Secrets of our Deadliest Illness [Paperback]

The recent startling discovery that a single gene prevents the cells in the body from becoming tumors marked a dramatic turning point in cancer research. Taking readers into the labs where researchers have determined that cancers are caused either genetically or environmentally by destroying this newfound gene,Curing Cancerbrings to life the race to unlock cancer's genetic code. It profiles scientists such as Bert Vogelstein, who first uncovered the tumor-suppressing gene; Mary-Claire King, whose research into breast cancer is fueled by personal passion; and Mark Skolnick, whose team found two genes that may account for 10 percent of all breast cancers.Michael Waldholzis a staff reporter atThe Wall Street Journal.He is the coauthor, with Jerry Bishop, ofGenome,a book based on their prizewinningWall Street Journalseries on the hunt for genes. Waldholz lives in Montclair, New Jersey.1: A Mystery Solved
In 1993, sixteen years after his death, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, or more accurately, a tiny part of him, participated in a remarkable experiment. Scientists in Baltimore, using new laboratory tools, solved a long-standing but little-known mystery surrounding the late politician's death. In doing so, the laboratory detectives uncovered information about Humphrey that might have changed the course of American politics in 1968.
But this experiment meant more than rewriting history; it revealed that science was in the midst of cracking open one of nature's deepest secrets: what causes cancer.
In their experiment, the scientific sleuths in Baltimore found the exact biological cause of the bladder cancer that killed Humphrey in 1978. The culprit was a tiny defect that somehow had taken hold in a single gene deep inside one of the numerous cells in Humphrey's bladder. The gene's job was to control the cell's growth. But because of the gene defect, which probably occurred early in Humphrey's life, the cell instl£4