THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE

Lung cancer in women has replaced uterine cancer among the cancers causing the highest mortality in women. However, breast cancer remains a leading cause of death because of increasing incidence. Potential causes for the increase in both these diseases in women will be explored. An exciting development in recent years has been the clarification of the role of oncogenes in carcinogenesis. It appears that some cancers require multiple sequential mutations for malignant transformation to occur. This may be the model for the study of carcinogenesis. These developments in molecular genetics have important implications in screening, diagnosis, prevention, and in treatment strategies. We may be witnessing the beginning of the era of cell differentiation therapy. Retinoids have a potential for impacting on the treatment of neoplasms such as promyelocytic leukemia and oropharyngeal cancers. Understanding of the mechanism cell differentiation may be forthcoming although molecular genetic studies.