Praise for the Serial "The book provides superb reading material which chemists and pharmacologists interested in the area of chemotherapy will surely enjoy reading." --JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES During the past 50 years, many chemicals of either synthetic or natural origin have been successfully used in the treatment of cancer. Most, if not all, of these drugs were developed empirically based on their antitumor activities in vitro and in vivo. Studies of topoisomerases as antitumor drug targets have been particularly intensive over the past decade. This is in part due to the recent identification of topoisomerases as the molecular targets for many antitumor drugs. New and improved therapies for cancer are being developed through studies of these novel drugs. This book will be a long-lasting reference for students and researchers of pharmacology, toxicology, molecular biology, oncology, and infectious diseases. LEROY F. LIU serves as the Chair and Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey. Dr. Liu earned his B.S. in Chemistry at the National Taiwan University in 1971. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received his doctorate in Biophysical Chemistry in 1977. Liu has also held various teaching positions, including Visiting Professor at Academic Sinica in Taiwan and both Assistant and Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A Searle Scholar (1981-1984), Liu was awarded the American Chemical Society Faculty Research Award (1985-1990) and the George H. Hitchings Award for Innovative Drug Design in 1989. Dr. Liu's research interests include Topoisomerases in DNA structure and function, DNA damage and repair, and cancer biology and pharmacology. Along with this contribution to Advances in Pharmacology, Liu has written more than 100 scientific articles.