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In recent decades eicosanoids have been attracting an increasing amount of attention as a result of their important physiological roles in many areas of biology and medicine. The eicosanoids comprise the prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes and are products of arachidonic acid, an essential polyunsaturated fatty acid stored in tissue phospholipids. Disturbances of eicosanoids and their metabolic products play a regulatory role in many types of cell injuries and diseases. One of the most exciting areas of eicosanoid research pinpoints their participation in the control of cell proliferation and differentiation. Eicosanoids form a link between different fields of research into such areas as cancer, inflammation and radiation-induced injury. This link provided the impetus for the development of the conference series of which the present volume represents the proceedings of the Second International Conference, held in Berlin in October 1991.

There is a unique nutritional commonality developing in research relating to coronary heart disease and cancer. The primary aim of this conference was to provide a forum for the leading researchers, clinicians, educators and administrators in these two fields to present a program on heart disease and cancer which included a) the major historical milestones, b) the present areas of greatest interest in research and therapy, c) the latest nutritional, molecular, and biotechnological advances, and d) a perspective on the most promising areas for future research and therapy. Scientists have long contended that research marches on the feet of methodology. Thus there are numerous examples of research fields opening secondary to methodological advances. Some examples are: 1) thin layer and gas-liquid chromatography which, along with high pressure liquid chromatography have broadened the line of advances in lipid research and 2) peR and the resultant impact on molecular biological approaches to several fields of science. The organizers of this conference thought the time was propitious for bringing together knowledge on newer aspects of molecular biological research with current advances in the two major areas of degenerative disease--coronary heart disease and cancer. Our knowledge of these'killer diseases'has expanded greatly in the past few years and the advance has been catalyzed by use of an array of molecular biological techniques. Thanks to these, medical thinking in these areas is changing from considerations of treatment to strategies for prevention.