Digital copy: $7.95 Instant download Click here to order a print copy $10.95 US/$13.95 elsewhere.

Nearly 40 years since we declared war on cancer, how goes the campaign against this intractable and ancient adversary? As you will learn in this special edition, our enemy intelligence has improved over the years, enabling us to get a better bead on where the trouble begins. And we have developed stronger weapons, to more precisely pursue and annihilate diseased tissue.

Finding Enemy Forces. Cancer's origins are multifaceted, a combination of an individual's genetic factors and influences from the surrounding environment and his or her personal history and lifestyle. Even stem cells--which, in other contexts, offer promise for the treatment of a variety of ailments--could be to blame.

Destroying the Targets. While scientists are grappling to gain a better understanding of cancer's complex beginnings, they also have improved ways of stalling the advance of the disease.

Hope in the Trenches. Patients with cancer, empowered by expanding informational resources and the changing, more open attitudes of doctors, are living longer and better than ever today. Although medicine clearly has much work to do, with advances occurring rapidly, we are on the path to managing this chronic disease.

Some of the features in this edition:

Untangling the Roots of Cancer
Recent evidence challenges long-held theories of how cells turn malignant--and suggests new ways to stop tumors before they spread

Mapping the Cancer Genome
Pinpointing the genes involved in cancer will help chart a new course across the complex landscape of human malignancies

Tumor-Busting Viruses
A technique called virotherapy harnesses
viruses, those banes of humankind, to stop
another scourge--cancer

Gaining Ground on Breast Cancer
The newest targeted therapies are helping doctors to tailor increasingly effective treatments to individual patients

And much more...