Researchers in this burgeoning field are excited because the recent advances in oncogene studies--such as identification of tumor suppressor genes and the potential for a gene-based test for cancer--are providing the best hope for ultimately bringing the "War on Cancer" to a close.
"The excitement is that for the very first time, the precise genes are being defined, and so we begin to see what's happening at the level of the genetic material of cancer," says Bernard Weinstein, director of the Columbia University Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We hope, therefore, that this will provide clinically useful information."
Six of the 10 most cited papers in medicine--based on citation data for papers published since 1989 and cited between September and October 1991--are in the field of oncogenes and their role in signal transduction. As reported in the Institute for Scientific Information publication Science Watch (3:5, January 1992), the papers are: * E.R. ...
