Directions of Future Cancer Research

Basic oncology concepts as well as recent discoveries in cancer research have been described throughout this book. This final chapter aims to present some suggested directions in future cancer research based on both the information provided in this book and on the current high throughput technology available today. Several ideas arise, from prevention and epidemiological studies to gene expression and proteomic in a personalized-based manner. Definitely, interaction of the diverse cancer experts in the world should lead to a better understanding of this disease. Multidisciplinary cancer research should also lead to discovery of more accurate methods to diagnose the disease at early stages and provide more efficient anti-cancer therapies, to the benefit of cancer patients.

Keywords: Epidemiological studies, pharmaco-epidemiology, cancer prevention, early markers, drug resistance, personalized therapy, clinical trials, mutations, etiological factors.