Physics and cancer
MAY 01, 1948
The fundamentals of cancer are the fundamentals of growth. Physics offers biology tools and techniques to attack the disease, but both sciences must work together on the basic problems of growth.
DOI: 10.1063/1.3066001
The connection between physics and cancer is peculiarly intimate—as intimate as cause and effect. For radiation, a valuable agent in the treatment of cancer, can itself cause cancer. This curious interrelationship exists largely because no one knows what causes growth, whether it be normal or abnormal. The primary problem in cancer is not an exploration of such isolated problems as the connection between radiation and cancer. It is the much larger and much more stimulating problem of understanding the fundamentals of growth.
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© 1948 American Institute of Physics
