Boris Pasche (ed): Cancer Genetics: Cancer Treatment and Research
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BOOK REVIEW
Boris Pasche (ed): Cancer Genetics: Cancer Treatment and Research University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 2010, $139.00, Steven T. Rosen, Series Editor, ISBN: 978-1-4419-6032-0 Denise Marty
Received: 19 October 2011 / Accepted: 3 November 2011 / Published online: 23 November 2011 # National Society of Genetic Counselors, Inc. 2011
The book, Cancer Genetics: Cancer Treatment and Research, was written for professionals and practitioners to highlight the rapidly evolving area of cancer genetics and how it has changed the approach to preventing and treating cancers. As a cancer genetic counselor, I was asked to review this book. This short, 112 page book just touches the surface of complexities in cancer genetics today. The main editor, Dr. Boris Pasche is a Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Deputy Director of the University of Alabama-Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center. In this book, he addresses recent trends in cancer genetics research and implications for practice. He was involved in a study that revealed one of the first genetic links between obesity and colon cancer as well as the discovery that decreased expression of the TGFBR1 gene is a major cause of colorectal cancer. He continues to focus on cancer genetics in his practice. This book accomplishes the editor’s goal with its inclusion of an overview of cancer genetics and the newly evolving field of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and personalized cancer treatment. This book is in no way a comprehensive reference of cancer genetic conditions but instead goes into depth on five main topics in the limelight of cancer genetics today. This book consists of five chapters along with an index of all publications cited. Each chapter is written by experts in their respective areas of cancer genetics. These chapters focus on issues of ethicolegal aspects of cancer genetics,
D. Marty (*) Virginia Piper Cancer Institute of Unity Hospital, Fridley, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected]
common polymorphisms in breast cancer, hereditary diffuse gastric cancer, neuroblastoma genetics and genomics, and TGF-B signaling in colon cancer. In the first chapter addressing ethicolegal aspects of cancer genetics Kenneth Offit and Peter Thom center on issues such as appropriate testing of children and embryos, “duty to warn” relatives about familial risk, reproductive genetic testing, the risk of genetic discrimination, and equitable access to testing. Chapter two contains a discussion of common polymorphisms in breast cancer, with a focus on current genome-wide association (GWAs) studies. Diana Eccles and William Tapper discuss testing for SNPs and how to better judge the aggressiveness and response to certain treatments. In the third chapter, David Huntsman and Kasmintan Schrader appropriately highlight the genetics of the rare inherited cancer syndrome known as hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) which is caused by germline mutations in the CDH1 gene. They not only address the complexities of this s
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