O'Malley Cancer Research is a Social Endeavor

An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Ethics in Cancer Research
1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-3-8316-0755-6
Verlag: Herbert Utz Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 101 Seiten

These collected papers from a conference in Germany’s famous Wartburg Castle reveal the excitement of potential discovery that presently exists among scientists who study cancer. The papers also outline the obstacles and struggles that stall progress in the prevention and treatment of this terrible disease. What unites the collection is the point that progress requires a social commitment – that cancer is a risk not only for individuals, but also for communities.

Cancer research requires more than great sums of public and private resources, it needs a structure that benefits from efficient and productive networks of scientists. There is a further essential requirement, however. The community that benefits from and sponsors cancer research must trust that it is guided by widely shared ethical ideals.

The papers in “Cancer Research Is A Social Endeavor” utilize the expertise of a diverse array of scientific specialists, yet they are addressed to a wide public. They function as an introduction to ethics in cancer research for three reasons: They demonstrate the nature of the problem that the disease poses for society. They argue how cancer research can benefit society. And they outline the guidelines that must govern research.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Malley, Martin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Table of Contents;8
2;List of Contributors;10
3;Note to the English Edition;14
4;Preface;16
5;Introduction to the Wartburg Conference: Cancer Research Is a Social Endeavor;22
6;From the Laboratory to the Clinic – The Present Status of Cancer Research;32
7;Cancer Causes and Cancer Prevention;42
8;Is It Legitimate To Prefer Ignorance? Theological and Ethical Considerations Regarding The Responsible Use of Information in Predictive Medicine;52
9;Justice for Cancer Therapy;68
10;Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the USA;82
11;Cancer Biology and Therapy: Looking to the Future;88

Leseproben

From the Laboratory to the Clinic – The Present Status of Cancer Research

Otmar D. Wiestler

Cancer represents a great challenge for research, medicine, ethics, politics … and it goes without saying that those afflicted by cancer disease feel this most poignantly. This conference, which endeavors to bring together specialists from many different areas, is an ideal forum to bring to light the problems we face in fighting cancer in all its many facets.
The timing for this conference is especially favorable, because cancer research and cancer medicine are presently in an important and exciting phase. Cancer research has the duty to investigate the causes for the emergence of this illness, and we use this basic understanding to develop new methods for diagnosis and treatment. Over time, this has proven to be extraordinarily difficult. And yet the research has made amazing progress across many fields. The progress that has been achieved is due to many different branches of biomedical researchers working on varied aspects of the disease. Here we must emphasize, however, the cell and tumor biology and in particular the decoding of the human genome – it is the most valuable common inheritance that we humans all share. This success is also in great measure due to a change in cancer research’s basic approach. For a long time, previously, we focused upon models of animal experimentation and individual cell research. But that focus has shifted more and more to actual cancer patients – and these patients are now the central focus of our research. The great task before us is the transfer of the important success we have achieved in the laboratory to treatments in the clinic.
How does the situation look for cancer medicine in the clinic? Today about one half of all patients with cancer can be successfully treated. The progress with individual forms of cancer is especially distinguished.