What Science Knows about Cancer reports from the front lines of the war on cancer with a clear and scientifically precise—yet thoroughly accessible—guide to how the disease develops, thrives, and can potentially be conquered. Taught by David Sadava, a laboratory researcher at the City of Hope Medical Center and an award-winning professor of biology at The Claremont Colleges, this fascinating 24-lecture course leaves no stone unturned in explaining the amazing ways cancer works to subvert the body's normal functioning, and how therapies can reverse these insidious processes.   Using a highly visual, step-by-step approach that takes you deep inside the cancer cell, Professor Sadava answers your questions about cancer and debunks myths with a level of specificity, scientific rigor, and candor that is rare to find.   With his expert guidance, you'll explore

• why cancer rates have risen over the last century;
• what agents and conditions cause cancer, from tobacco and radiation to diet and female reproductive status;
• how DNA changes underlie the development of cancer;
• the specific genes involved in making cells progress, divide, and spread;
• the methods physicians employ when battling cancer; and
• how behavior modification, drugs, vaccines, and compounds found in natural substances may help prevent cancer.