WHAT IS CANCER?

A few years ago I was at a small meeting with a
group of distinguished cancer biologists and clinicians.
It was an interesting meeting because
there were also distinguished scientists from
other fields. The idea of the meeting was to
stimulate cross-fertilization of ideas from different
scientific disciplines, with the hope that
new paradigms for approaching the causes of
cancer and its course would be conceived.
One of the first questions that one of the noncancer
researchers asked was, what is the definition
of cancer? It was somewhat startling to
hear the vigorous discussion and even squabbling
among the distinguished cancer scientists in their
attempt to define cancer. Although most could
agree on a few key characteristics, everyone had
their own caveats or additional variations to add.
So, like all good academic groups, they appointed
a committee to come up with a consensus definition.
As the most gullible person there, I agreed
to chair the committee. After many phone calls
and E-mails going back and forth, we came up
with the definition and more detailed description
below. I should note that the definition is the sort
of thing that would appear in a dictionary and the
description contains some of the points and caveats
thought crucial for taking into account the
characteristics of this multifaceted disease.