e disease of which, approximately 500,000 die annually (54:107). Furthermore, during the last two decades, this incidence has been increasing. Considering such statistics, it is obvious that any effort which prevents even a fraction of cancer cases would have a major impact on human health. For the most part, the earlier that a give neoplastic disease is detected, the better is the chance of achieving a cure. Thus, screening programs have been designed for many varieties of cancer (25:1776). According to the American Cancer Society, mortality could be reduced by as much as a third if all physicians regularly used early detection measures (39:11).
Besides cancer screening, a number of medical treatments are also currently available. Just a few of these include surgery, radiation, and antineoplastic agents. Additional therapeutic modalities await an elucidation of the diseases' causative factors and underlying physiological and biochemical mechanisms. Only through such knowledge will effective approaches to the cancer problem
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