This book provides a unique, wide-ranging description of the phenomenon of cancer and its pathological effects in diverse species including humans, domesticated and wild animals, invertebrates, and plants. The broad scope of information presented is used to construct radical new insights into biological self-regulation and explain their relevance to its disruption by cancerous growth and spread within the human body. Mechanisms of action of carcinogenic agents, initiation, progression, metastasis, inappropriate gene expression, dormancy, latency, regression, and reasons for susceptibility and/or resistance to cancer are all considered. Also discussed are criteria for pathological diagnosis, advances in treatment, implications for public health, and pitfalls in diagnosis and interpretation of experimental results.