Description: For the first time, scientists are beginning to answer the question, what causes cancer? Recent startling genetic discoveries have revolutionized the direction of basic research.

Michael Waldholz, coauthor of the highly praised Genome, reports on the people who are slicing, splicing, and cloning their way to exciting breakthroughs in the cancer war. Among them, Bert Vogelstein, who begins his 14-hour day at 5:30 every morning, running the Baltimore lab that discovered the p-53 tumor-suppressor gene; Mary-Claire King, the genetic epidemiologist, whose contributions to breast cancer research nearly wrecked her life; and Mark Skolnick, whose Salt Lake City team found the BRCA-1 and -2 genes that alone may account for one out of every ten breast cancers, and may point the way to further discoveries in early diagnosis.

In a vividly written, dramatic narrative, Waldholz follows these researchers as they race to publish their results, vying for the glory and fortune that await the scientist who can finally solve the mystery underlying the illness that is the number-one killer in America.

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