In breast cancer as in other cancers on the front line of modern interdisciplinary research we have crossed the threshhold of new understanding. Fueled by an awareness that breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women and honed by rapid technological advances in molecular mechanisms, major inroads into the darkness of this scourge have been accomplished during the past several years. Basic laboratory and clinical research findings must influence and in turn be influenced by efforts to detect, to diagnose and to cure the human disease. It is indeed gratifying to note...

Effective control of breast cancer depends on three types of research accomplishment -- understanding the disease's origins and progression: successfully applying this knowledge to methods of detection, diagnosis and treatment: and finding ways to make these advances truly available to the public as effectively as possible. The significant progress that is occurring across this entire spectrum of pioneering investigation is reflected in these proceedings of the 1987 biennial conference of the International Association for Breast Cancer Research. The first section of the book focuses on...