Francesco Pezzella is Professor of Tumour Pathology at the University of Oxford, UK, and Consultant Pathologist at the Oxford University Hospitals. His early work focused on the pathology of HIV and its effect on lymph nodes, followed by the molecular alterations of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. His research then turned to cancer and blood vessels, whereby he discovered the non-angiogenic pathway of the growth of human cancers, leading to a change in one of the hallmarks of cancer. Professor Pezzella continues to specialise in haematopathology and has published over 200 papers.

Mahvash Tavassoli is Professor of Molecular Oncology at King's College London, UK. She has held several positions internationally, including at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, the University of Sussex, and the Max Planck institute in Munich. Professor Tavassoli's early research focused on understanding the signaling and apoptosis pathways which are deregulated in cancer, before shifting towards the clinical application of her lab work. She currently leads a research team at KCL focused on developing genetic tests for the early detection and prediction of patient response to radiotherapy in head and neck cancer. They aim to develop more effective, less toxic cancer therapeutics.

David J. Kerr is Professor of Cancer Medicine, at the University of Oxford, UK, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell College of Medicine in New York, USA. Professor Kerr has made a sustained and internationally recognised contribution to cancer care and research in the field of medical oncology over the past three decades. He has published over 400 papers in high profile journals, authored over twenty books, and has been awarded four prestigious, international research prizes, including the NHS's first Nye Bevan award for Innovation. His scientific standing has been recognised by election as Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences, President of the European Society of Medical Oncology (2009-2011), and Founding Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences.

• Section 1: The multicellular organism


• 1: Francesco Pezzella, David Kerr, and Mahvash Tavassoli: The multicellular organism and cancer


• 2: Giacomo Buscemi: DNA repair and genome integrity


• 3: Tom Donnem and Francesco Pezzella: Evolution and cancer


• Section 2: The etiology of cancer


• 4: Mark A. Glaire and David N. Church: Genetics and genetic instability in cancer


• 5: Edward Hookway, Nicholas Athanasou, and Udo Oppermann: Epigenetics


• 6: Dirk P. Dittmer and Blossom Damania: Viral carcinogenesis - an overview


• 7: David H. Phillips: Chemical carcinogens


• 8: Yan-Qun Xiang and Chao-Nan Qian: Radiation as a Carcinogen


• Section 3: How the cancer cell works


• 9: Nadège Gaborit and Yosef Yarden: Growth factors and associated signalling pathways in tumour progression and in cancer treatment


• 10: Balkees Abderrahman and V. Craig Jordan: Hormones and Cancer


• 11: Mahvash Tavassoli and Francesco Pezzella: Oncogenesis and tumour suppression


• 12: Jiangting Hu: The signaling pathways in cancer


• 13: Simon Carr and Nicholas La Thangue: Cell cycle control


• 14: Jessica Bullenkamp and Mahvash Tavassoli: Cancer and cell death


• 15: Laura Collopy and Kazunori Tomita: Telomerase and immortalisation


• 16: Almut Schulze, Karim Bensaad, and Adrian L Harris: Cancer metabolism


• 17: Andrea Rasola: Chaperones and protein quality control in the neoplastic process


• 18: Adrian L Harris and Margaret Ashcroft: Oxygen and cancer: the response to hypoxia


• 19: Andrey Ugolkov and Andrew P. Mazar: Invasion, Metastasis and Tumor Dormancy


• 20: Connor Sweeney, Lynn Quek, Betty Gration, and Paresh Vyas: Cancer Stem Cells


• Section 4: Cancer microenvironment


• 21: W.E. Mesker and R.A.E.M. Tollenaar: Cancer associated stroma


• 22: Francesco Pezzella and Robert Kerbel: Blood vessels and cancer


• 23: Herman Waldmann: Cancer Immunology


• Section 5: Global vision of cancer


• 24: Pieter-Jan van Dam and Steven Van Laere: Molecular profiling in cancer research and personalized medicine


• 25: Pedro Cutillas and Benedikt M. Kessler: Proteomics and metabolomics applications in cancer biology


• 26: Lieven Verbeke and Steven Van Laere: Cancer systems biology: from molecular profiles to pathways, signalling networks and therapeutic vulnerabilities


• 27: Karen Pulford and Kevin Gatter: Cancer biology through immunohistology


• Section 6: The biology of cancer treatment


• 28: David Kerr, Daniel Haller, and Jaap Verweij: Principles of chemotherapy


• 29: Gwennaëlle C. Monnot and Pedro Romero: Immunotherapy and Tumour Resistance to immune mediated control and elimination


• 30: Anna Dubrovska, Mechthild Krause, and Michael Baumann: Biological effect of radiotherapy on cancer cells


• Section 7: Conclusions


• 31: Francesco Pezzella, Adrian L Harris, and Mahvash Tavassoli: Benign tumours: the forgotten neoplasms


• 32: David Kerr and Mahvash Tavassoli: Conclusions: cancer biology, a moveable feast