Racing To The Beginning Of The Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer

It's been some 20 years since a book of medical literature has captured the interest, let alone the excitement, of young people considering a career in medicine or biology. Racing to the Beginning of the Road is a welcome end to that trend. Author Dr. Robert Weinberg, director of the oncology research lab at the Whitehead Institute of Technology, relates several theories on the origins of cancer. He recounts scientific breakthroughs throughout the story and paints delightfully human portrayals of the scientists involved.

Just as The Double Helix told of the historic effort to discover the structure of the DNA molecule, this book recounts the inside story of the discoveries that revolutionized our understanding of cancer. Written by one of America's leading scientists in this effort, here is a compelling, candid account of scientific progress.

The realization that viruses cause certain types of cancer, resulting from research conducted from the mid-1970s to the mid-'80s, is the focus of oncologist Weinberg's complex, absorbing tale. It picks up momentum with the 1976 discovery by Nobel Prize-winning San Francisco virologists Mike Bishop and Harold Varmus that the normal human cell contains a proto-oncogene, a gene that under certain conditions can be converted into a potent cancer-causing dynamo, or oncogene. Weinberg, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology biology professor, is a central character in his own narrative. His pioneering work at MIT, and that of rival research teams, led to the insight that the human genome carries several dozen proto-oncogenes, and that mutant oncogenes, damaged by viruses, chemical carcinogens, dietary input or other processes, can trigger cancer. Beginning in 1986, scientists isolated tumor-suppressor genes, which counteract the renegade cell growth caused by oncogenes, and it is now believed that damage to both halves of the cell's "mind" conspires to create cancer. Weinberg surveys research avenues that may help predict cancer's occurrence and the efficacy of chemotherapy.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Weinberg, a founding member of MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, gives an insider's account of the research (and the discoveries) regarding the molecular origins of cancer. Although he underplays his own contributions, he makes good sense of the difficulty of measuring professional accomplishments against the work of Nobel prize-winning colleagues. Weinberg makes it clear just how many people are involved in ongoing research; how tough allocating appropriate credit can be; how cooperation, competition, and word of mouth each plays an important role in spurring on years of effort behind the breakthroughs; and just how many dead ends lie in wait despite promising data. This accessible and readable book might have profited from a greater discussion of developments from past decades (Weinberg covers research up to 1986), but the longer perspective is instructive. The public needs to understand that the processes and the difficulties of scientific investigation have never been more pressing. Weinberg's take on the process is an important contribution. Highly recommended.?Mary Chitty, Cambridge Healthtech, Newton Upper Falls, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Researcher Weinberg tells the story of the race in cancer studies that took place during the 40 years after World War II. He describes the characters of the researchers but is best at showing how they approached and developed their topics, how they reacted to their own and competitors' successes and failures, and how they were perceived by the public. The story's cast ranges from Nobel Prize winner David Baltimore to the newest graduate student who happened to come up with a bright idea at an opportune moment. Weinberg's accounts of the falsifications of two researchers, Spandidos and Spector, amount to scholarly detective stories, and his discussion of the early arguments between the viral-causation and genetic-causation camps of cancer researchers shows that the controversy affected the growth of scientific knowledge. His fascinating and lucid history climaxes with the 1986 demonstration of the keys that unlocked the origin of cancer--the relationships between oncogenes and tumor-suppressing genes. William Beatty

Here's a fascinating look at cutting-edge scientific research--the identification of cancer's origins--from a man who has been near its center for nearly three decades. Weinberg (Biomedical Research/MIT) has the advantage of having actually worked with or competed against many of the scientists who are the stars of his story. Beginning in the 1950s, the search for the causes of cancer began to focus on two areas: the body of evidence implicating various possible carcinogens (tobacco smoke, asbestos, etc.) and the equally strong evidence that many cancers could be caused by viruses. The discrepancy was not resolved until it became clear how certain normally harmless genes (known as oncogenes) can become active and send the cells of which they are a part into cancerous growth. Weinberg gives this discovery full attention, as he does the linked discovery of a tumor-suppressing gene that can be damaged by carcinogens. But his account is most notable for its memorable portraits of the scientists themselves, among them Ernst Wynder, who first established a link between smoking and lung cancer; Howard Temin and David Baltimore, who discovered the mechanism by which retroviruses reproduce; and the brilliant but erratic Sol Spiegelman, himself a cancer victim. Weinberg's knowledge of the key players is matched by his ability to tell their collective story, doing justice to the scientific facts and making their significance clear to the lay reader. He is also eloquent on the politics of science, where the competition for grants and for Nobels is cutthroat. Nor does he ignore the scandals and disasters: Premature announcements of shaky results, grudges nursed for years, careers ruined by botched experiments. As the result of this research, our understanding of cancer has dramatically increased, and new techniques for fighting it may be expected to follow. Scientific history at its most compelling--strongly recommended. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

... the next time one of my research friends asks me to recommend a book that will imbue his son or daughter with the true excitement of biomedical investigation, I'll tell him to buy a copy of Racing to the Beginning of the Road. -- The New York Times Book Review, Sherwin B. Nuland

Double Helix told of the historic effort to discover the structure of the DNA molecule, this book recounts the inside story of the discoveries that revolutionized our understanding of cancer. Written by one of America's leading scientists in this effort, here is a compelling, candid account of scientific progress.