Morange M
Département de biologie, Ens, Paris Cedex, France.
Oncogene. 2007 Dec 6;26(55):7607-10. doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1210583. Epub 2007 Jul 23.
'Biology and cancer research have developed together. Invariably, at each stage, the characteristics of the cancer cell have been ascribed to some defect in whatever branch of biology happens at the time to be fashionable and exciting; today, it is molecular genetics'. Tremendous transformations have occurred in cancer research since these few lines were written by John Cairns: the discovery of oncogenes and anti-oncogenes, and the successful development of 'magic bullets' targeting the proteins encoded by these oncogenes. Nevertheless, Cairns' message is still valid. In 1978, he observed the first attempts to apply the tools and concepts of molecular biology to cancer; today, this research field reflects multiple and diverse efforts that go 'beyond' molecular biology by looking for explanations that have been left aside during its development, or by privileging new approaches, fully original or actively pursued in other fields of biological research. Because of this specific characteristic of cancer research, it is possible to use it as an indicator of trends in biological research in general.
生物学与癌症研究共同发展。在每个阶段，癌细胞的特征总是被归因于当时生物学中任何一个时髦且令人兴奋的分支领域中的某些缺陷；如今，则是分子遗传学。自从约翰·凯恩斯写下这几行文字以来，癌症研究领域发生了巨大变革：癌基因和抗癌基因的发现，以及针对这些癌基因所编码蛋白质的“神奇子弹”的成功研发。然而，凯恩斯传达的信息仍然有效。1978年，他目睹了将分子生物学的工具和概念应用于癌症研究的最初尝试；如今，这个研究领域反映出多种不同的努力，这些努力通过寻找在分子生物学发展过程中被搁置的解释，或者通过优先采用全新的方法（这些方法要么完全原创，要么在其他生物学研究领域中被积极探索），从而“超越”了分子生物学。由于癌症研究的这一独特特性，它有可能被用作整个生物学研究趋势的一个指标。
