Calcium in Cell Cycles and Cancer

The second edition of Calcium in Cell Cycles and Cancer presents a unique overview of calcium's roles in the several stages of cell cycles initiated by signals from "velcroceptors" and other kinds of growth-factor receptors. This book integrates the actions of calcium and its partner, cyclic AMP, with those of the growing family of newly discovered, stage-specific, cyclin-dependent protein kinases of the "cell cycle engine." The book also shows calcium to be a terminal, ultimately apoptogenic differentiator of colon and skin cells, as well as a major player in lymphocyte selection, activation, and proliferation. This edition relates and explains the dramatic changes in calcium's involvement in the cell cycle and the triggering of terminal differentiation programs that happen during carcinogenesis and are important keys to understanding cancer.