Covers all aspects of gastrointestinal and liver malignancies (epidemiology, pathophysiology, screening where appropriate, symptoms and clinical signs, diagnostic studies, staging and classification, treatment, prognosis, follow-up, future perspectives). The text is addressed to those involved in the multidisciplinary approach to the gastrointestinal cancer patient (gastroenterologists, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, surgeons, interventional radiologists, pathologists, nurses, and physicians-in-training). The book provides in-depth information, illustrated by numerous color/black-and-white pictures. Selective reading for a quick reference is made possible by introducing text elements such as summaries, tables, listing and treatment algorithms.

Volume 71 of Advances in Cancer Research begins with Morgan and Kastan presenting data on the roles of p53 and ATM in cell cycle progression and cell death in response to DNA damage and how this information may lead to targets for improved cancer therapies. Kok "et all." Review the methodological advantages and limitations to localizing tumor suppressor genes, especially those on the short arm of chromosome 3. Peltomaki and de la Chapelle describe research on mismatch repair genes and their effects on colorectal cancer. McKenna and Cotter present findings on the functions and failures of apoptosis in the hematopoietic system. Ravitz and Wenner review TGF-B and how it controls and affects cell cycle progression in a variety of cell types. Andrew Simpson presents data on the mutation frequencies of microsatellites in human carcinogenesis. Naor and colleagues present research on a multitude of tumors expressing levels of CD44 and discuss how CD44 may be used as a target for cancer therapy. Luisa Villa discusses various aspects of HPV and the potential clinical use of HPV testing in cervical cancer prevention programs. Last, Disis and Cheever review the studies that define HER-2/neu specific immunity in patients with cancer and the current vaccine strategies for generating specific immunity.

This book will be focused on mitochondria as very promising targets for anti-cancer drugs, yet to be fully exploited. It will contain chapters focused on aspects of basic research as well as on clinical relevance, which will be written by specialists in the field. That the role of mitochondria in human pathologies goes beyond the neoplastic diseases will be documented by a chapter of the role of mitochondria in Friedreich's ataxia.

Prominin-1 or otherwise known as CD133 is a glycoprotein that is present in humans and mice. Since the first description of prominin in 1997, in mouse neuroepithelial cells and in human hematopoietic stem cells as AC133 antigen, this molecule has aroused a large interest especially, as a stem cell marker, that gave rise to an ever growing body of publications and more recently its expression in cancer stem cells. Controversies as to its role as a cancer stem and its detection in different models, as well as its use as a prognostic marker have emerged. Yet, beyond its use as a stem cell and cancer stem cell marker, prominin-1/CD133 displays unique biological features and appears of importance in other processes like for example in retinal biogenesis. Indeed, this five-transmembrane plasma membrane glycoprotein, which marks membrane protrusions is associated with several essential processes like cell polarity, asymmetric cell division and membrane remodeling. We propose to review current knowledge about this intriguing molecule and present pertinent information to determine the biological role of prominins and assess their importance in medicine and cancer research. The primary audience for this book is geared towards scientists and researchers with interest in cancer stem cells, stem cells, cell biology, neurobiology, and regenerative medicine.

The acknowledgment that viruses are potent biological factors in driving many cancers have seen a dramatic upsurge in recent years in large part to the success of the human papilloma virus vaccine against invasive cervical carcinomas and followed by the awarding of the noble prize in medicine in 2008 to Dr. Harald zurHausen who identified the link between papilloma virus and cervical cancers. Over the last few years there have been some volumes addressing different aspects of viruses and cancers and to some extent focusing on the DNA viruses, more specifically the human DNA viruses. This proposed volume will attempt to review and address the major gaps in current knowledge in DNA viruses as well as RNA viruses bringing a historical perspective of where studies began to a more recent molecular approach and vaccine successes in tumor viruses. We will also cover other known oncogenic viruses associated cancers in other mammals in addition to humans.

This book offers comprehensive information on the polymorphisms of genes encoding pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Following a short description of the general role of PRRs in the immune system, the structure and function of Toll-like and NOD-like receptors are examined in detail. The main focus is on the role of inherited variation in PRRs and their correlation to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. A review of all epidemiological investigations is included, and a concept of genomic risk markers for the prevention of various diseases is also discussed.

There is extremely compelling evidence to suggest that if people are physically active before, during and after cancer treatment, their outcomes are likely to be better. Their risk of recurrence (and death) is lower and their ability to deal with the myriad side effects is improved significantly. Increasingly people with cancer understand this but they are often unsure of what exercise would be best, what is safest, what would be most effective and what to avoid. This book offers very practical, targeted information to enable people to exercise in whatever way they feel ready for. It provides guidance on effective and appropriate exercise for anybody who has received a diagnosis of cancer, including those receiving active treatment and those living with incurable cancer of all types, with the emphasis on the proven benefits of exercise and activity.

This book provides a framework for computational researchers studying the basics of cancer through comparative analyses of omic data. It discusses how key cancer pathways can be analyzed and discovered to derive new insights into the disease and identifies diagnostic and prognostic markers for cancer. Chapters explain the basic cancer biology and how cancer develops, including the many potential survival routes. The examination of gene-expression patterns uncovers commonalities across multiple cancers and specific characteristics of individual cancer types. The authors also treat cancer as an evolving complex system, explore future case studies, and summarize the essential online data sources. Cancer Bioinformatics is designed for practitioners and researchers working in cancer research and bioinformatics. It is also suitable as a secondary textbook for advanced-level students studying computer science, biostatistics or biomedicine.

While it is well established that the worldwide pandemic of overweight and obesity has profound effects on promoting cancer, it is now recognized that an alternative aspect of energy balance, namely physical activity and exercise have significant beneficial effects on all aspects of cancer across the spectrum from prevention through treatment and extending through survivorship. Moreover, salutary effects of physical activity and exercise extend across the age span from youth to old age and occur at all stages of cancer extending into palliative care. While the effect of physical activity and exercise on cancer may be partially mediated through obesity control, it is clear that considerable research is required and is ongoing at both the molecular and clinical levels to better understand the associated mechanisms and to develop optimal exercise strategies. This volume will contain chapters on the effect of exercise on biological pathways in tumor growth, state art exercise strategies and cutting edge research focused on different cancers and patient groups. It will provide an important volume in this series on energy balance and cancer and a basis for ongoing research, experimental approaches and application of evidence based practices to clinical care for patients with cancer. "

The book will provide an exhaustive and clear explanation of how Statistics, Mathematics and Informatics have been used in cancer research, and seeks to help cancer researchers in achieving their objectives. To do so, state-of-the-art Biostatistics, Biomathematics and Bioinformatics methods will be described and discussed in detail through illustrative and capital examples taken from cancer research work already published. The book will provide a guide for cancer researchers in using Statistics, Mathematics and Informatics, clarifying the contribution of these logical sciences to the study of cancer, thoroughly explaining their procedures and methods, and providing criteria to their appropriate use.

This volume will describe both growth-inhibitory and mucin-depleting effects of bromelain and N-acetylcysteine, on their own or in combination, in cancer. It will coherently review the pathophysiological aspects of the mucin glycoproteins in malignancies and provide an updated account of the status of bromelain and N-acetylcysteine in cancer therapy. The volume will develop the idea of using these two drugs as a combination formulation for mucin-depleting effects.

This book presents non-linear image enhancement approaches to mammograms as a robust computer-aided analysis solution for the early detection of breast cancer, and provides a compendium of non-linear mammogram enhancement approaches: from the fundamentals to research challenges, practical implementations, validation, and advances in applications. The book includes a comprehensive discussion on breast cancer, mammography, breast anomalies, and computer-aided analysis of mammograms. It also addresses fundamental concepts of mammogram enhancement and associated challenges, and features a detailed review of various state-of-the-art approaches to the enhancement of mammographic images and emerging research gaps. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for radiologists and medical experts (oncologists), as mammogram visualization can enhance the precision of their diagnostic analyses; and for researchers and engineers, as the analysis of non-linear filters is one of the most challenging research domains in image processing.

Management of the Patient at High Risk for Breast Cancer provides a state-of-the art review of patients who are at high risk for breast cancer, how to identify them, the tools available for risk assessment and quantification and indications for genetic counseling and testing. The book summarizes the high risk breast imaging options, including newest techniques and schedules. Pathologic evaluation of high risk lesions are featured as well as the management issues surrounding these lesions. The volume also covers the management of concomitant cancer risk and screening strategies. A concise, yet comprehensive overview of the current status of the topic, Management of the Patient at High Risk for Breast Cancer serves as a useful resource for physicians and researchers dealing with and interested in patients at high risk for breast cancer.

This volume, a state-of-the-art review of early phase clinical trials for cancer immunotherapy, discusses biomarker selection, combinatorial strategies and their safety or toxicity, determination of Phase 2 dosing, endpoints in the setting of radiographic pseudoprogression, histology selection, and novel immunotherapeutics as they relate to early phase cancer immunotherapy.

This open access book is a step-by-step introduction on how shell scripting can help solve many of the data processing tasks that Health and Life specialists face everyday with minimal software dependencies. The examples presented in the book show how simple command line tools can be used and combined to retrieve data and text from web resources, to filter and mine literature, and to explore the semantics encoded in biomedical ontologies. To store data this book relies on open standard text file formats, such as TSV, CSV, XML, and OWL, that can be open by any text editor or spreadsheet application. The first two chapters, Introduction and Resources, provide a brief introduction to the shell scripting and describe popular data resources in Health and Life Sciences. The third chapter, Data Retrieval, starts by introducing a common data processing task that involves multiple data resources. Then, this chapter explains how to automate each step of that task by introducing the required commands line tools one by one. The fourth chapter, Text Processing, shows how to filter and analyze text by using simple string matching techniques and regular expressions. The last chapter, Semantic Processing, shows how XPath queries and shell scripting is able to process complex data, such as the graphs used to specify ontologies. Besides being almost immutable for more than four decades and being available in most of our personal computers, shell scripting is relatively easy to learn by Health and Life specialists as a sequence of independent commands. Comprehending them is like conducting a new laboratory protocol by testing and understanding its procedural steps and variables, and combining their intermediate results. Thus, this book is particularly relevant to Health and Life specialists or students that want to easily learn how to process data and text, and which in return may facilitate and inspire them to acquire deeper bioinformatics skills in the future.

This book, for the first time, comprehensively assembles and analyzes a large body of information on the role of the fundamental mechanism of the protein biosynthesis pathway, translation, in cancer biology. It systematically explores the function of the translation machinery and its regulation, including cell signaling, in the development, maintenance and progression of human cancer. The work presented here unveils the tremendous potential and applications of this vast and exciting branch of genetic, biochemical and molecular science in cancer medicine and drug development.

Chapters contributed by experts in the field take the reader on a journey that starts with a dissection of the translation machinery and its regulation in norm and cancer. Later chapters characterize etiological and pathogenetic roles that translation plays in specific cancer types. Various aspects of diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic significance of the translation machinery and its control in cancer are discussed. Readers will discover the importance of the process of translation and its regulatory mechanisms in physiology and cancer biology.

The chapters and the numerous illustrations included here were contributed by expert scientists and clinicians from renowned academic and clinical establishments in Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Australia.

The book conveys information and knowledge that may interest a broad range of students and scholars ranging from basic scientists to clinicians and drug developers seeking to better understand the protein synthesis and its aberrations in cancer biology and cancer medicine.

Volume 70 begins with two "Foundations in Cancer Research" articles, a staple of the Advances in Cancer Research series. The first article by Michael Stoker presents a review of some of the early advances made by cancer cell biology researchers. The second article by Emmanuel Farber describes the methods by which researchers delineate the phenotype of cells and ways to alter these phenotypes to prevent or delay carcinomas. Chidambaram and Dean illustrate the tumors and associated malformations of nevoid basal cell carcinoma. Koli and Keski-Oja review the effects of how transforming growth factor-b regulates cell proliferation, differentiation, and morphogenesis and its regulation by the steroid hormone superfamily. Jean-Marc Lemaitre and colleagues discuss the involvement of protooncogenes in the control of the cell cycle and embryonic development with specific attention paid to c-Myc expression and c-Myc function. A review of the various studies involving tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and their possible role in cancer prevention is presented by Steven Rosenberg and co-workers. Finally, Bruce Ponder and Darrin Smith review the genetic and biological aspects of multiple endocrine neoplasia type-2 syndromes and the phenotypes associated with "ret" mutations.

This book collates past and current research on one of the most promising emerging modalities for breast cancer detection. Readers will discover how, as a standalone technology or in conjunction with another modality, microwave imaging has the potential to provide reliable, safe and comfortable breast exams at low cost. Current breast imaging modalities include X- ray, Ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Positron Emission Tomography. Each of these methods suffers from limitations, including poor sensitivity or specificity, high cost, patient discomfort, and exposure to potentially harmful ionising radiation. Microwave breast imaging is based on a contrast in the dielectric properties of breast tissue that exists at microwave frequencies. The book begins by considering the anatomy and dielectric properties of the breast, contrasting historical and recent studies. Next, radar-based breast imaging algorithms are discussed, encompassing both early-stage artefact removal, and data independent and adaptive beamforming algorithms. In a similar fashion, microwave tomographic reconstruction algorithms are reviewed in the following chapter, introducing the reader to both the fundamental and more advanced algorithms. Apart from imaging, the book also reviews research efforts in extracting clinically useful information from the Radar Target Signature of breast tumours, which is used to classify tumours as either benign or malignant. Finally, the book concludes by describing the current state of the art in terms of prototype microwave breast imaging systems, with a particular emphasis on those which have progressed to the clinical evaluation stage. This work is motivated by the fact that breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death amongst women in Europe and the US, and the second most common cancer in the world today. Such an important area of research will appeal to many scholars and practitioners.p>

Based on the analytical methods and the computer programs presented in this book, all that may be needed to perform MRI tissue diagnosis is the availability of relaxometric data and simple computer program proficiency. These programs are easy to use, highly interactive and the data processing is fast and unambiguous. Laboratories (with or without sophisticated facilities) can perform computational magnetic resonance diagnosis with only T1 and T2 relaxation data. The results have motivated the use of data to produce data-driven predictions required for machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Consequently, this book is intended to be very useful for students, scientists, engineers, the medical personnel and researchers who are interested in developing new concepts for deeper appreciation of computational magnetic resonance imaging for medical diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and management of tissue diseases.