Preface

Cancer is the leading cause of death in most countries and continues to increase mainly because of the aging and growth of the world population as well as habitation of cancer-causing behaviors such as smoking and alcohol. Based on statistics of the GLOBOCAN 2008, about 12.7 million cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths are estimated to have occurred in 2008 (Siegel et al. Ca Cancer J Clin 61:212-236, 2011). Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females, accounting for 23% of the total cancer cases and 14% of the cancer deaths. Thus cancer researches, especially breast cancer, are important to overcome both economical and physiological burden. The current book on breast cancer aims at providing information about recent clinical and basic researches in the field. The book includes chapters written by well-known authors, who are worldwide experts in their research areas. The current book covers topics such as characteristics of breast cancer cells, molecular tumor classification methods, in vitro cancer models, breast cancer and microenvironment, breast cancer stem cells, gene regulation in breast cancer, and mechanism of breast cancer cell interaction, invasion as well as metastasis. We hope that the book will serve as a good guide for the scientists, researchers and educators in the field.

> **Prof. Dr. Mehmet Gunduz Assoc. Prof. Dr. Esra Gunduz**  Fatih University Medical School Turkey

**Part 1** 

*In Vitro* **Cancer Models** 

**Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Tumor Classification,** 
