摘要 : In this edition of BioEssays two papers address the mechanisms of cancer. Cancer is widely (but not universally) regarded as a genetic disease – i.e. a disease of genes. This is true in both the familial and somatic senses of the ... 展开 In this edition of BioEssays two papers address the mechanisms of cancer. Cancer is widely (but not universally) regarded as a genetic disease – i.e. a disease of genes. This is true in both the familial and somatic senses of the term. It has long been recognized that the risk of developing cancer is not evenly distributed in the community, and that some families are particularly prone to the disease. For the past 30?years, it has become increasingly clear that cancer cells also acquire changes in the DNA code, some of which appear to be required for tumor formation. The evidence for this comes from various sources, including the use of increasingly sophisticated and powerful genomic tools. Perhaps the most important evidence comes from clinical trials, where it is becoming increasingly evident that the presence of (usually acquired) mutations in certain genes is predictive of responses to targeted therapeutics – the phenomenon known as “oncogene addiction.” 收起