ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I propose that the novelty characterizing molecular medicine consists in a “fusion” of the clinical method and of the experimental method. In order to show this, I proceed, first, historical-critically and, then, by emphasizing tumor heterogeneity and the difference between cancer cell lines and primary tumor cultures. The historical-critical analysis will allow seeing whether molecular medicine is truly a novelty, since nothing is a cultural novelty except in the light of history of culture. The emphasis on the molecular approach to tumor heterogeneity will permit to consider what I will argue to be the very novelty, that is, the investigational method here adopted, which is, as said, a sort of fusion between the standard clinical method and the standard experimental method. This is the reason why I claim that “the clinical method enters the lab.”
