Hemostasis involves a set of strictly regulated processes that maintain blood in its fluid state within the vascular bed and, in case of vessel injury, promote the formation of platelet plugs and fibrin clots to prevent blood extravasation. As such, Platelets: Overview, Function and Disorders explores how platelets play an important role in the blood coagulation process, and how platelet deficiencies or functional defects may be the cause of some bleeding disorders. The worldwide incidence of cutaneous melanoma has been increasing annually at a more rapid rate in comparison to any other type of cancer affecting predominantly young and middle-aged individuals. It is known that when melanoma cells leave the primary tumor and enter the blood stream, they activate surrounding platelets via some molecules, inducing microthrombus formation. The authors discuss how platelets contribute to inflammation, cancer invasion, and metastasis. Additionally, the role of platelet-rich-plasma in stimulating the healing process in difficult-to-heal ulcers has been investigated over the past 25 years. It is suggested that platelet-rich-plasma is capable of transforming the difficult-to-heal skin ulcer with low metabolic activity into a healing ulcer with increased capacity for tissue regeneration. This closing study focuses on the causes, diagnosis, and prognosis of various types of thrombocytopenia, providing an outline on the future prospects of using antioxidants for the treatment of a few thrombocytopenic conditions.

This issue of Hematology/Oncology Clinics, Guest Edited by Drs. Edward Snyder and Eric A. Gehrie, with Consulting Editors George P. Canellos and H. Franklin Bunn, will focus on Transfusion Medicine. Topics include, but are not limited to, Pathogen Reduction, Transfusion Reactions-Infectious Complications, Txn Rxn-Non-Infectious Complications, Iron Deficiency and Teen Blood Donors, Advances in RBC Serology, Advances in Immunotherapy, Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody Effect on RBC Compatibility Testing, Cell Therapy-New Regulations and Standards, Alternatives to Platelet and RBC Transfusions, New Hemostatic Agents, Tx Practices for Children with Cancer, and Relevance of Cold Platelets and WB to the Bleeding Oncology Patient.

The opening chapter of this compilation is dedicated to the quantification of selenium and platinum in blood serum by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. While selenium is an essential trace element in many selenoproteins, platinum is found in the human body as a consequence of chemotherapy treatment after the administration of Pt-based drugs. For these reasons, their reliable quantification is extremely important. The authors go on to discuss how the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases is important for more efficient treatment and prophylaxis. Currently, the dominant hypothesis of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is amyloid cascade resulting in accumulation of amyloid-I(2) in brain structures. In conclusion, the authors discuss the major barrier to a widespread use of blood serum eye drops represented by the lack of standardized processes for the preparation, conservation, and dispensation of the products. Future perspectives of homologous serum eye drops include the introduction of tailored eye drops screened for the desired content of growth factors for each patient and ocular surface disease.

Get a quick, expert overview of risk management in transfusion medicine from Dr. James Mills Barbeau. This practical resource presents a summary of today's state-of-the-art techniques for reducing harm during all phases of transfusion practice, including blood collection, testing, processing, clinical assessment, and transfusion. It's an easy-to-read, one-stop resource for managing and mitigating the various levels of risk in a variety of transfusion settings and scenarios. Presents a well-rounded perspective on quality assurance, blood supply testing, clinical risk, ethical and legal considerations, and transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases. Demonstrates how transfusion risk-management programs add value to health care institutions by enhancing a culture of safety, improving the institution's reputation, and improving the bottom line. Consolidates today's available information on risk management in blood transfusion medicine into one convenient resource.

This issue of Hematology/Oncology Clinics, edited by Drs. Jorge J. Castillo, Steven P. Treon, and Stathis Kastritis, will focus on Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia. Topics include, but are not limited to, Genomics; Epigenomics; Flow cytometry; Marrow microenvironment; Familial Waldenstrom; MYD88 L265P and other MYD88 mutations; CXCR4 and other recurrent mutations; Diagnosis and differential diagnosis; Criteria to treat and treatment goals; Alkylators; Monoclonal antibodies; Proteasome inhibitors; BTK inhibitors; Transplant; and Novel approaches.

This text provides a comprehensive, up-to-date review of chimerism. The first part of the volume presents the causes of chimerism, specifically focusing on fertilization and early embryonic errors, pregnancy and multiple gestations, and transplantation and transfusion. The second part of the volume outlines clinical identification and consequences of chimerism. Chapters in this section focus on the effects of chimerism on testing in relationship determination and forensics, prenatal genetic testing and screening, and blood and HLA typing. This part also reviews new data concerning matching donors and recipients for transplantation, while outlining the risks of transplantation, such as graft-vs-host disease and passenger lymphocyte syndrome. Additionally, evidence on the role of chimerism in autoimmune disease and cancer is presented. Written by experts in the field, Chimerism: A Clinical Guide is a valuable resource for clinicians and researchers that will help guide patient management and stimulate investigative efforts.

Natural killer (NK) cells are important effector cells of innate immune system implicated in many physiological processes including elimination of cancer cells and virus infected cells. NK cells comprise a majority of large granular lymphocytes circulating in peripheral blood with a minority derived from T cell lineage. Even though NK cells were first described more than 40 years ago, it was not until the 1980s and 1990s when immunophenotyping was incorporated into clinical diagnostic methods and resulted in discovery of distinct disorders of large granular lymphocytes and NK cells. Since then, significant progress was made in our better understanding of immunophenotypic and genotypic characteristics, biology, functions as well as disorders of these cells. Most recently, clinical studies using NK-cell based immunotherapy have shown promising results in treatment of some of malignant diseases. Disorders of large granular lymphocytes and NK cells are rare comprising only about 1% of all lymphoid malignancies in western countries. The rarity of these conditions was a main reason that the progress in our understanding of pathogenesis and development of novel therapeutic approaches has been delayed compared to development in more common B cell lymphoid malignancies. The low incidence of these diseases and scarcity of prospective clinical trials also limit the availability of evidence based research literature as well as comprehensive reviews about NK cell disorders. Thus, the editors decided to take on the challenging task and summarize our current knowledge about malignant and benign diseases of large granular lymphocytes in this book based on the best available evidence. The editors selected topics most relevant to clinical practice in order to provide a useful guide for practicing physicians. Chapters describing four disorders (T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia, chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of NK cells, extranodal NK cell lymphoma and aggressive NK cell leukemia) incorporated into most recent 2016 revision of classification of lymphoid malignancies are separated into experimental, diagnositc and clinical parts for easier understanding and reading. We are aware of challenges and inherited limitations of any larger project like this one due to a rapid progress especially in the field of genomics, which may not be incorporated in this book before it is published. The editors and contributing authors would like to thank the publisher NOVA for their support.

This issue of Hematology/Oncology Clinics will feature articles such as: Anaplastic large cell lymphomaj; New agents; Transplant, Uncommon variants; ATLL, CD30+ LPD of skin; NK/T, MF/SS; and many more!