Excellent Biology Research Articles

Multidisciplinary management of locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma: Biology is King.

The annual incidence of pancreatic cancer is nearly 50,000 patients. The 5-year overall survival is only 9%, and there remains a great need for better therapy. A subset of these patients presents with locally advanced disease. Multidisciplinary therapy has evolved to include some combination of systemic chemotherapy, locoregional radiation, and surgery in select patients with excellent biology. This review will address the thoughtful evidence-based and individualized approach to these patients.

Colin Brownlee.

Colin Brownlee.

Squaring the Circle: Addiction, Disease and Learning

The history of ideas about addiction often comes down to a history of debates over the use and meaning of language (Levine et al. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 15:493–506, 1978). Nowhere is this more clear than in the interminable “Is addiction a ‘disease’?” debate. In Marc Lewis’ excellent Biology of Desire and in his paper that centers this issue, there is far more agreement between his work and mine than there is disagreement on the “disease” question. Here, however, I make a case for greater compatibility between the “disease” view and learning models of addiction than Lewis does, because I think the nuance is worth exploring. Indeed, if addiction science and ethics paid more attention to nuance in general, the whole field would be far better off.