This book focuses on issues in clinical practice and research that are of general interest. The articles primarily focus on understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of diseases, their prevention, and therapy. The topics addressed include cardiovascular regulation with regard to blood pressure and heart rate variability, and to coupling blood pressure changes with subarachnoid fluid oscillations. In addition, the book discusses recent advances in the diagnostics of and targeted molecular therapy for renal and pancreatic malignancies, growth disorders, vitamin D and calcium homeostasis in children in the context of neonatal urolithiasis, and neurosurgical interventions in multifarious age-related diseases of the vertebrae. Neuropsychological aspects of patients' quality of life and of shaping medical staff's attitude toward patients are also addressed. The respective articles are intended to build a bridge between basic and clinical research. Further, the book enhances the current body of knowledge on diagnostics and patient treatment and offers valuable new perspectives on practical clinical issues. As such, it offers a unique resource for clinicians, family physicians, medical scholars, and professionals engaged in patient management.

This book presents a novel molecular description for understanding the regulatory mechanisms behind the autonomy and self-organization in biological systems. Chapters focus on defining and explaining the regulatory molecular mechanisms behind different aspects of autonomy and self-organization in the sense of autonomous coding, data processing, structure (mass) formation and energy production in a biological system. Subsequent chapters discuss the cross-talk among mechanisms of energy, and mass and information, transformation in biological systems. Other chapters focus on applications regarding therapeutic approaches in regenerative medicine. Molecular Mechanisms of Autonomy in Biological Systems is an indispensable resource for scientists and researchers in regenerative medicine, stem cell biology, molecular biology, tissue engineering, developmental biology, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, as well as big data sciences, complexity and soft computing.

This volume reviews the evolution of information regarding the epidemiology of DCIS and its modes of detection, as well as treatment options as a function of both clinical trial data and ongoing investigational therapeutic prospects. Several of the challenging and clinically-relevant scenarios of DCIS that appear in daily practice is discussed, including the difficulties of distinguishing "true" DCIS from borderline patterns of other breast diseases and the therapeutic implications of differentiating these various diagnoses. Particular attention is paid to pathologic evaluation of DCIS, including histologic patterns and the importance of margin evaluation/margin control. The text also explores the data regarding DCIS in medical research in hereditary susceptibility for breast cancer and race/ethnicity-associated disparities in breast cancer. Written by experts in the field, Ductal Carcinoma In Situ and Microinvasive/Borderline Breast Cancer is a comprehensive, state-of-the art review of the field, and serves as a valuable resource for clinicians, surgeons and researchers with an interest in breast cancer.

Cancer stem cells werehave originally been identified in leukemia and later in several solid tumor types. They have very different properties from the bulk of the tumor, as they divide much more slowly and have very efficient drug- resistance mechanisms. Current treatments might largely spare cancer stem cells, thus leading to tumor recurrence and metastasis. The recent identification of growth and differentiation pathways responsible for cancer stem cell proliferation and survival will help in the discovery identification of novel therapeutic targets. Developing selective drugs against cancer stem cells offers great therapeutic opportunities but also provides for major challenges regarding preclinical models, therapeutic windows, and clinical study end points.

Molecular Pathology of Gynecologic Cancer focuses on putting successful molecular strategies into practice for the treatment of gynecologic cancer. The volume begins with an explication of the editorsa (TM) hypothesis that cancer is mainly a disease of the cell cycle, based on the deregulation of the physiological process of cell reproduction. The following eleven chapters focus on specific issues in gynecologic cancers, including: a proposed model of ovarian serous carcinogenesis, molecular markers for ovarian epithelial cancer, an overview of the pathology of endometrial cancer, molecular genetic aspects of endometrial carcinoma and cervical cancer, a natural history of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) as it relates to cervical cancer, and hereditary issues in gynecologic cancers. The concluding chapter proposes and outlines a holistic approach to the treatment of female cancer patients. This new volume in Humanaa (TM)s Current Clinical Oncologya"[ series will be necessary reading for clinicians and experimental researchers alike.

We are currently experiencing a fundamental shift in the way in which we approach the characterization of cancer. Never before has the make up of cancer tissues and individual cells been so exhaustively researched and char- terized. We are now capable of producing molecular "fingerprints" that ch- acterize the expression of all known and unknown genes within tumors and their surrounding tissues. More than 30,000 different genes may be measured in each patient's tumor in a single experiment. Simultaneously, novel therapies that exploit the molecular roadmap have been developed and are now being offered to patients. These novel agents, such as Glivec, Herceptin, Iressa, and others, specifically target individual genes within tumors and can produce d- matic responses in some patients. These drugs are only the forerunners of a coming tidal wave of novel therapeutics that individually target specific m- ecules within cancer cells-more than 300 such agents are currently in phase I or II clinical trials. This is an exciting time for cancer specialists and patients alike. However, if we have learned anything from the past 50 or more years of research into cancer, it is that Lord Beaverbrook, in founding the British national health service in the 1950s, was frighteningly prescient when he defined the primary goal of health care to be "Diagnosis, Diagnosis, Diag- sis. " Now, more than ever, it is essential that appropriate diagnostic methods and approaches are applied to the selection of patients for treatment.

In the past five years, a surprising and intense resurgence in interest in vitamins and other micronutrients and their role in health and dis ease has occurred. The recognition has emerged that vitamins not only are essential for life .in that severe nutritional deficiencies occur in their absence, but that these compounds may also serve as natural inhibitors of cancer. Synthetic alterations of the basic vitamin A mole cule have also resulted in the production of compounds that are more potent as anticancer agents than the natural substance and may have substantial therapeutic activity as well. Whether other vita mins can be changed or altered to produce a better anticancer effect than the native compound has been little explored to date, but should be a fruitful pursuit for future study. In our concluding remarks to the First International Conference in 1982, we speculated that rapid advances in our understanding of vi tamins would occur in the next few years and that large-scale inter vention trials of vitamins as preventive agents in defined human pop ulations would be started. This anticipated generation of data on vitamins and their interactions has proceeded rapidly and the impor tance of interactions between vitamins and other micronutrients in the prevention setting has become better appreciated. Currently, more than 25 intervention trials with a variety of target populations using vitamins and other micronutrients have been started, but it re mains too early for meaningful analysis of the results to date."

Quality of Life Assessment has progressed considerably since the publication of the first highly acclaimed edition of this book in 1998. Quality of life has now become an indispensable outcome measure in many randomised clinical trials and other studies. Thus, it is timely to provide not just an update, but a completely new edition that reviews the current state of art and also discusses topical issues including areas where active research is in progress. The first section discusses the development and evaluation of generic and disease-targeted questionnaires. Having decided the items to be included the thrust of the next section covers how to convert these into usable forms. Section 3 addressing analysis and the methods of analysing studies with missing data is followed by chapters on interpretation of results and exploring the role of single-item questions. The final section of the book looks beyond the individual clinical trial and how we can use clinical trial and other data to make macro-decisions. A strong international team of experts cover a wide range of topics, emphasizing new and innovative approaches that are of practical and clinical importance, reviewing the current state of the art and illustrating the benefits and potential of health related quality of life assessment in clinical trials.

This, the second of two volumes on personalized medicine in lung cancer, touches upon the recent progress in targeted drug development based on genomics; emerging biomarkers and therapeutic targets such as EMT, cancer stem cells, and the tumor microenvironment; current personalized clinical management and radiation therapy for lung cancers; and the promise of epigenetics and next-generation sequencing for the advancements towards personalized therapy of lung cancer patients. With chapters on state-of-the-art therapies and technologies written by leading experts working to develop novel companion diagnosis tools for the personalized treatment of lung cancer patients, this volume brings readers up-to-date by presenting the current knowledge on the efforts to make personalized management of lung cancer patients a reality.

The contents of Colorectal Cancer: Methods and Protocols aim to instruct investigators in all the key genetic, cellular, and molecular biological methods of analyzing colorectal tumors. The focused techniques and assays are described in sufficient detail to allow researchers to start an experiment on colon tumors and proceed from beginning to end as if the expert in the field who has performed these studies were guiding them at the bench. Of note, most of the chapters in this volume are written by those scientists who p- neered these methods and assays in their respective fields. The chapters in Colorectal Cancer: Methods and Protocols describe "state of the art" methods to analyze colorectal tumors, ranging from gross mic- dissection of specimens to specific molecular analyses. Included are coverages of mutational assays, instability testing, immunohistochemical assays, chro- somal studies, and gene expression analyses. The goal of our volume is to facilitate the performance of colorectal tumor biological experiments by investigators at various levels of training-from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to principal investigators who desire to advance our understanding of colon cancer development.

Liver Cancer, the inaugural volume in the M.D. Anderson Solid Tumor Oncology series, provides the general surgeon, surgical oncologist, and medical oncologist with the most up-to-date and current standard of multimodality care for hepatobiliary cancer. Surgical approaches, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, and radiotherapy are all presented, giving the practitioner a much needed, comprehensive perspective on all aspects of patient care. The MD Anderson Solid Tumor Oncology series features cutting-edge, indepth information of vital interest to all practitioners in today's captitated financial milieu. Providers must understand how their component of care interdigitates with the varied medical and surgical teams and apply multimodality approaches to their practice environments.

The European Organization for Cooperation in Cancer Prevention Studies (ECP) was established in 1981 to promote collaboration between scientists working in the various European countries on cancer causation and prevention. In order to achieve this aim, various working group- to deal with specific cancers or aspects of cancer aetiology, and to explore the opportunities for advances on a cooperative European basis - were established. It was also decided to hold annual symposia to draw general attention to fields in which there seemed to be many opportunities for progress in matters of prevention. These symposia have been devoted to themes of high priority to cancer prevention: "Tobacco and Cancer" (1983), "Hormones and Sexual Factors in Human Cancer Aetiology" (1984), "Diet and Human Carcinogenesis" (1985), "Concepts and Theories in Carcinogenesis" (1986)," Preventive Strategies for Cancer related to Immune Deficiencies" (1987), "Gastric Carcinogenesis" (1988), and "Breast, Ovarian and Endometrial Cancer: Aetiological and Epidemiological Relationships" (1989). This volume contains the proceedings of the 1990 ECP symposium held in Heidelberg, FRG, at the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), on April 2-3 on "Causation and Prevention of Human Cancer." We are indebted to the speakers for their contribution during the symposium and for their prompt submission of manuscripts. We are grateful to the sponsors, SmithKline Diagnostics and Rohm Pharma. Our special thanks go to Dr M.C. stanei-Gueur for preparing and typing the camera forms of all manuscripts.

This book critically evaluates the causal link between cell division machinery and disease. Further, it identifies key open questions in the field and the means for exploring them. Throughout the various chapters, internationally known contributors present the evidence for and against a causal link between key elements of the cell division machinery and diseases such as cancer, neuropathologies, aging, and infertility. A more clinically oriented chapter further discusses the current and future applications of anti-mitotic drugs in these diseases. Cell Division Machinery and Disease is essential reading for graduate or advanced graduate students, researchers or scientists working on cell division as well as clinicians interested in the molecular mechanisms of the discussed diseases.

This second edition has been updated in a user-friendly layout that makes its comprehensive information extremely accessible. The handbook, written for all physicians who treat cancer patients, provides a survey of current therapeutic concepts of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies in internal oncology. Each individual chapter of this shortened new edition is structured in the same way and features a brief outline or tabular summary of the main aspects of epidemiology, pathology, staging, and diagnosis. The main focus is on the therapeutic strategy, i.e., an interdisciplinary approach to systemic drug therapy. Surgical and radiological concepts of treatment are also covered, as are supportive care, pain relief methods and ethical problems. This title is a must for clinicians and practitioners as well as interns, residents and postgraduate students.

The contents of this book will be organized into three sections. The first section defines the scope, impact and behaviour of cancer regimen-related toxicities and frames the issue of balancing treatment success and physiological cost. In the second segment of the book, the most current thinking around the pathobiology of specific, common, and representative toxicities is presented by leading researchers and translational scientists. The final portion of the book discusses the common biological relationships between toxicities, bioinformatical approaches to analysing key and common pathways, and strategies for the development of effective interventions.

A cutting-edge review of the important issues underlying the therapeutic use of nucleic acid-mediated gene silencing. Topics range from basic methodology and delivery to targeting and clinical targets. The authors thoroughly explain the latest developments in RNA biology, as well as the underpinnings of RNA interference, oligodeoxynucleotide delivery into cells, and strategies for targeting these molecules to accessible regions within the mRNA. They also provide some examples of how these new therapeutic compounds are being used clinically.

This volume began with an invitation from the publishers to edit a volume of EXS on Cancer. This invitation undoubtedly derived from my articles in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences in 2002 and 2003 on the relationships between the morphology, aetiology and pathogenesis of tumours, especially in relation to genetic instability. After many years of teaching the theories of c- cer in undergraduate medical school courses, it seemed to me that the variably chaotic histopathologic features of tumours parallel in some way, the variably unstable genomes of tumour cells, which were being discovered in the 1990s. Thus the title of the volume has come to include morphology, carcinogenesis and genetic instability. The invitation came while I was working with Herrn Dr. med. Hubertus Jersmann (MD Dusseldorf, PhD, now Senior Lecturer in Medicine of the University of Adelaide) and Professor Brian Coghlan (Emeritus Professor of German, the University of Adelaide), on the work of the nineteenth century cancer pathologists, especially David Paul von Hansemann (1858-1920). With the delivery of the manuscripts from the authors of the chapters, it became obvious that a background chapter for the volume could include some of the material which we had "uncovered" together. Because of this, chapter 1 is authored by the three of us, and the "new" material figures prominently.

Molecular biology has rapidly advanced since the discovery of the basic flow of information in life, from DNA to RNA to proteins. While there are several important and interesting exceptions to this general flow of information, the importance of these biological macromolecules in dictating the phenotypic nature of living creatures in health and disease is paramount. In the last one and a half decades, and particularly after the completion of the Human Genome Project, there has been an explosion of technologies that allow the broad characterization of these macromolecules in physiology, and the perturbations to these macromolecules that occur in diseases such as cancer. In this volume, we will explore the modern approaches used to characterize these macromolecules in an unbiased, systematic way. Such technologies are rapidly advancing our knowledge of the coordinated and complicated changes that occur during carcinogenesis, and are providing vital information that, when correctly interpreted by biostatistical/bioinformatics analyses, can be exploited for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human cancers. The purpose of this volume is to provide an overview of modern molecular biological approaches to unbiased discovery in cancer research. Advances in molecular biology allowing unbiased analysis of changes in cancer initiation and progression will be overviewed. These include the strategies employed in modern genomics, gene expression analysis, and proteomics.

Lymphangiogenesis and Cancer Metastasis introduces the new field of lymphatic vessel growth and development, and its relationship to the metastatic spread of cancer cells.

The book covers all aspects of this new field from the fundamental role that protein growth factors and their receptors play in lymphangiogenesis to the potential application of these advances to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Other clinical aspects explored include the mechanisms and importance of lymph node metastasis, the role of the lymphatics in lymphangioleiomyomatosis and Kaposi s sarcoma, and approaches for imaging lymphatics in cancer.

The book also covers the innovative approaches taken by researchers to explore new roles for lymphatic vessel biology in the context of cancer. The information presented in this volume, which describes the revolutionary concepts of tumor lymphangiogenesis, will be of interest to all students, scientists and oncologists who are seeking to understand the complexities of tumor metastasis.

Key Features:

• Presents fundamental concepts of tumor lymphangiogenesis and the molecules which control this process
• Provides a comprehensive summary of current research in this ground breaking area
• Provides a book which links progress in basic tumor and developmental biology with current and future oncology practise
• Is an essential text for molecular biologists, cell biologists and oncologists seeking to understand the implications of this rapidly developing area.

This book presents the state of the art of biostatistical methods and their applications in clinical oncology. Many methodologies established today in biostatistics have been brought about through its applications to the design and analysis of oncology clinical studies. This field of oncology, now in the midst of evolution owing to rapid advances in biotechnologies and cancer genomics, is becoming one of the most promising disease fields in the shift toward personalized medicine. Modern developments of diagnosis and therapeutics of cancer have also been continuously fueled by recent progress in establishing the infrastructure for conducting more complex, large-scale clinical trials and observational studies. The field of cancer clinical studies therefore will continue to provide many new statistical challenges that warrant further progress in the methodology and practice of biostatistics. This book provides a systematic coverage of various stages of cancer clinical studies. Topics from modern cancer clinical trials include phase I clinical trials for combination therapies, exploratory phase II trials with multiple endpoints/treatments, and confirmative biomarker-based phase III trials with interim monitoring and adaptation. It also covers important areas of cancer screening, prognostic analysis, and the analysis of large-scale molecular data in the era of big data.

Effective control of breast cancer depends on three types of research accomplishment -- understanding the disease's origins and progression: successfully applying this knowledge to methods of detection, diagnosis and treatment: and finding ways to make these advances truly available to the public as effectively as possible. The significant progress that is occurring across this entire spectrum of pioneering investigation is reflected in these proceedings of the 1987 biennial conference of the International Association for Breast Cancer Research. The first section of the book focuses on oncogenes and chemical effectors that may play key roles in early cell transformation leading to breast cancer. Research discussed includes identification of specific oncogenes which appear to be involved in the disease, study of their activation and expression, examination of the biological effects of various growth factors isolated from breast cancer cell lines, and investigation of the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens promote and stimulate growth of breast cancers. The second group of chapters deals with several other complex factors and phenomena which may influence tumor formation in the breast, for example, expression of abnormalities by fibroblasts, disruption of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, and loss of ability nili to synthesize normal basal lamina resulting in alterations in the extracellular matrix. Clarification of the processes of normal mammary gland development and differentiation is central to much of this work.

During the past four decades knowledge about biological effects of ionizing radiations on mammalian cells, normal tissues and tumours has increased enormously and has enabled radiotherapists to obtain a better insight into the advantages and disadvantages of cancer treatments with modified regimens of irradiations and combinations with chemotherapeutic agents. Even for the older scientists and clinicians who have wit nessed all these developments and have contributed to the vast amount of information, it is difficult to integrate this knowledge and to apply it in their daily work. For younger workers it is often difficult to select the important main concepts and results from the overwhelming number of publications. It is evident that a book which provides an integrated view of basic and applied radiation oncology can be of great value to students, scientists and, most importantly, to clinicians who can devote only part of their time to the task of understanding the radiobiological background of their application of radiation in cancer treatment. This book "Radiation Oncology" is written by a radiotherapist who has for a long time participated in the integration of basic knowledge and clinical experience. He has selected radiobiological information which is considered important to radiotherapy and in the description and interpretation of normal tissue tolerance and tumour eradication probability, he illustrates how basic knowledge can be applied clinically."

In recent years, there have been major advances in the treatment of patients with gynecologic malignancies. Perhaps the biggest advances have been in the area of ovarian cancer. Gynecologic Oncology focuses primarily upon this malignancy. This volume discusses cytoreductive surgery; screening for ovarian cancer; chemotherapy; new chemotherapeutic drugs; the controversy regarding the role of high-dose chemotherapy in gynecologic cancers; the hereditary basis for gynecologic malignancies; molecular genetics; molecular biology and new biologic therapies. Other topics covered are the treatment of all stages of cervical cancer, including radiotherapy. In addition, a chapter on advances in the pathology of gynecologic cancers is included. The advances made in the treatment of gynecologic malignancies are due, in part, to the clinical studies performed by many of the contributors to this volume. Clinical advances have been the result of multidisciplinary approaches which involve molecular biologists, pathologists, radiation therapists, surgeons and chemotherapists. Future advances will continue to rely upon collaborative interaction among these different disciplines.