Familial and hereditary tumors

the long version

"The pioneering work of a few investigators in the 1960s made it clear that genetic factors play an important role in tumor development. Hereditary factors have nonetheless received far less attention than environmental ones in the study of the causes of cancer. This has resulted in the discrepancy that there is a strong general concern, for example, about cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse (the two most common causes of cancer in humans) yet that many physicians give little or no attention to the patient's familial history and that first-degree relatives of patients are rarely felt to be at risk because of the common genetic background. This volume focuses on the genetic features of most human tumors, emphasizing their familial and hereditary basis as well as the close interaction between environmental and genetic factors. The aim is to translate our increased knowledge of familial cancer into new programs for cancer prevention and detection, such as the surveillance of high-risk individuals."--BOOK JACKET.