There Is A Duality In Recognising What

If There's A Seminal Discovery In Oncology In The Last 20 Years, It's That Idea That Cancer Genes Are Often Mutated Versions Of Normal Genes.

There's A Phrase In Shakespeare: He Refers To It As The 'hidden Imposthume', And This Idea Of A Hidden Swelling Is Seminal To Cancer. But Even In More Contemporary Writing It's Called 'the Big C'.

I Think The Way We Think About Cancer, The Way We Treat Cancer, Has Dramatically Changed In The Last Century. There Is An Enormous Amount Of Options That A Physician Can Provide Today, Right Down From Curing Patients, Treating Patients Or Providing Patients With Psychic Solace Or Pain Relief.

When You Immerse Yourself In Medicine You Realise That Hope Is Not Absolute. It's Not That Simple.

In The Laboratory, We Call This The Six-degrees-of-separation-from-cancer Rule: You Can Ask Any Biological Question, No Matter How Seemingly Distant-what Makes The Heart Fail, Or Why Worms Age, Or Even How Birds Learn Songs-and You Will End Up, In Fewer Than Six Genetic Steps, Connecting With A Proto-oncogene Or Tumor Suppressor.