Revealing essential roles of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression, this volume focuses on the extracellular matrix components of the tumor during cancer development. Further, it teaches readers about the roles of distinct constituents of the tumor microenvironment and how they affect cancer development. Topics include heparan sulphate, hyaluronan, fibronectin, perlecan, glypican, matrix metalloproteinases, and much more. Taken alongside its companion volumes, Tumor Microenvironment: Extracellular Matrix Components - Part A updates us on what we know about the different aspects of the tumor microenvironment, as well as apprises us on the future advances in the field. For the newest generation of researchers, this volume serves as a useful introduction to the history of scientists' focus on the tumor microenvironment, and explores how this knowledge is currently applied in cancer treatments. The book is an essential text for advanced cell biology and cancer biology students, as well as for scientists seeking an update on the developments in tumor microenvironment research. All of the chapter authors are renowned international experts in the field of cancer biology, and in the specific subfields that are the focus of their chapters.

An innovative contemporary history that blends insights from a variety of disciplines to highlight how a storied African cancer institute has shaped lives and identities in postcolonial Uganda. Over the past decade, an increasingly visible crisis of cancer in Uganda has made local and international headlines. Based on transcontinental research and public engagement with the Uganda Cancer Institute that began in 2010, Africanizing Oncology frames the cancer hospital as a microcosm of the Ugandan state, as a space where one can trace the lived experiences of Ugandans in the twentieth century. Ongoing ethnographic fieldwork, patient records, oral histories, private papers from US oncologists, American National Cancer Institute records, British colonial office reports, and even the architecture of the institute itself show how Ugandans understood and continue to shape ideas about national identity, political violence, epidemics, and economic life. Africanizing Oncology describes the political, social, technological, and biomedical dimensions of how Ugandans created, sustained, and transformed this institute over the past half century. With insights from science and technology studies and contemporary African history, Marissa Mika's work joins a new wave of contemporary histories of the political, technological, moral, and intellectual aspirations and actions of Africans after independence. It contributes to a growing body of work on chronic disease and situates the contemporary urgency of the mounting cancer crisis on the continent in a longer history of global cancer research and care. With its creative integration of African studies, science and technology studies, and medical anthropology, Africanizing Oncology speaks to multiple scholarly communities.

This book systematically reviews the most important findings on cancer immune checkpoints, sharing essential insights into this rapidly evolving yet largely unexplored research topic. The past decade has seen major advances in cancer immune checkpoint therapy, which has demonstrated impressive clinical benefits. The family of checkpoints for mediating cancer immune evasion now includes CTLA-4, PD-1/PD-L1, CD27/CD70, FGL-1/LAG-3, Siglec-15, VISTA (PD-1L)/VSIG3, CD47/SIRPA, APOE/LILRB4, TIGIT, and many others. Despite these strides, most patients do not show lasting remission, and some cancers have been completely resistant to the therapy. The potentially lethal adverse effects of checkpoint blockade represent another major challenge, the mechanisms of which remain poorly understood. Compared to the cancer signaling pathways, such as p53 and Ras, mechanistic studies on immune checkpoint pathways are still in their infancy. To improve the responses to checkpoint blockade therapy and limit the adverse effects, it is essential to understand the molecular regulation of checkpoint molecules in both malignant and healthy cells/tissues. This book begins with an introduction to immune checkpoint therapy and its challenges, and subsequently describes the regulation of checkpoints at different levels. In closing, it discusses recent therapeutic developments based on mechanistic findings, and outlines goals for future translational studies. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers in the cancer immunotherapy field, helping to form a roadmap for checkpoint regulation and develop safer and more effective immunotherapies.

This book contains most updated information on synthesis of magnetic nanohybrids, their physio-chemical properties, and key biological applications. It highlights the complexity of nanoheterostructures, especially magnetic metal oxides, ferrites and doped magnetic nanomaterials, and discusses their potential applications in the early detection, imaging and treatment of cancer. It also covers the toxicity and risk assessment of multifunctional nanomaterials. Providing an overview of magnetic nanoheterostructures, it appeals to a wide audience, from beginners and graduate-level students to experts in academia and industry.

Revealing essential roles of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on the role of chemokines in the tumor microenvironment. Each chapter focuses on the chemokines patterns of expression, their regulation, and their roles in immune cell recruitment, as well as how they affect cancer immunity and tumorigenesis. Taken alongside its companion volumes, Tumor Microenvironment: The Role of Chemokines - Part A updates us on what we know about various aspects of the tumor microenvironment as well as future directions. This book is essential reading for advanced cell biology and cancer biology students as well as researchers seeking a comprehensive update on research in the tumor microenvironment.

Revealing essential roles of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on the role of interleukins in the tumor microenvironment. Each chapter focuses on the various ways to target the tumor microenvironment by intervention in the interleukin biology, including IL-1, IL-8, IL-21, IL-36 signaling, and more. Taken alongside its companion volumes, Tumor Microenvironment: The Role of Interleukins - Part A updates us on what we know about various aspects of the tumor microenvironment, as well as future directions. This book is essential reading for advanced cell biology and cancer biology students as well as researchers seeking an update on research in the tumor microenvironment.

Popular understanding holds that genetic changes create cancer. James DeGregori uses evolutionary principles to propose a new way of thinking about cancer's occurrence. Cancer is as much a disease of evolution as it is of mutation, one in which mutated cells outcompete healthy cells in the ecosystem of the body's tissues. His theory ties cancer's progression, or lack thereof, to evolved strategies to maximize reproductive success. Through natural selection, humans evolved genetic programs to maintain bodily health for as long as necessary to increase the odds of passing on our genes-but not much longer. These mechanisms engender a tissue environment that favors normal stem cells over precancerous ones. Healthy tissues thwart cancer cells' ability to outcompete their precancerous rivals. But as our tissues age or accumulate damage from exposures such as smoking, normal stem cells find themselves less optimized to their ecosystem. Cancer-causing mutations can now help cells adapt to these altered tissue environments, and thus outcompete normal cells. Just as changes in a species' habitat favor the evolution of new species, changes in tissue environments favor the growth of cancerous cells. DeGregori's perspective goes far in explaining who gets cancer, when it appears, and why. While we cannot avoid mutations, it may be possible to sustain our tissues' natural and effective system of defense, even in the face of aging or harmful exposures. For those interested in learning how cancers arise within the human body, the insights in Adaptive Oncogenesis offer a compelling perspective.

The second edition of Immunotherapy is an updated overview of immuno-oncology in acute myleloid leukemia, non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma, showcasing advances in the management of cancer broadly classified as hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Though the spectrum of clinical activity and duration of response seen with these agents is promising, objective response is limited to a subset of patients and is often associated with distinct side effects that are potentially life-threatening. With increasing use of checkpoint inhibitors as standard of care and in clinical trials, the burden of immune-related adverse events will undoubtedly increase. Given these limitations and increase in health care costs associated with such therapies, it is essential to identify patients who are likely to respond to immunotherapy and those who are at a risk for developing treatment-related side effects. This new edition will inform readers on the latest in biomarker development to identify patients who are more likely to respond, and strategies to overcome the challenges of immune-related adverse events. In addition, the authors recognize that including the missing patient voice in clinical trials and longitudinal assessment of symptom reports may help to identify early indicators of response or toxicity. Thus, the book includes a chapter on patient-reported outcomes in patients treated with immunotherapies. The authors believe that acquiring this knowledge will help health care professionals make informed treatment decisions. Edited by two renowned experts in the field, the book's chapters are written by a diverse cast of experts conducting cutting-edge research, providing the reader with the most up-to-date science.

The best and most concise single source for state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer -newly revised, updated, and expanded.Lung cancer has long been the number-one cause of death from cancer every year and the third most frequently diagnosed after breast and prostate cancers. In 2010, about 15% of all cancer diagnoses and 30% of all cancer deaths were due to lung cancer. Needless to say, there is a great need for more rapid advancements in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating disease.

Here is the comprehensively revised, updated, and expanded edition of the well-established, evidence-based reference book that deals with the most recent advances in lung cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, research, and treatment for the clinician. Edited and authored by leading authorities in the field, this Fourth Edition of the highly regarded" Lung Cancer" is better than ever -featuring nine new chapters along with seven re-formatted ones that are nearly brand new in content and approach. It covers Smoking Prevention and Cessation; Molecular Profiling; Somatic Genome Alterations in Human Lung Cancers; Management of Multi-Focal Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC); Primary Tracheal Tumors; Predictive Tumor Biomarkers for EGFR Inhibitors; Non-Small Cell and Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma; and more.

This Fourth Edition of "Lung Cancer" Provides the very latest research in the identification of biomarkers to predict a high risk for developing lung cancer - vital for implementing screening, diagnosis, and prevention strategiesPresents the newest lung cancer staging system, as well as updated and cutting-edge surgical and radiation therapy techniques that make local tumor control more effective and less invasive while sparing normal tissuesDiscusses combined modality therapy and new chemotherapeutic agents which are yielding higher response rates and improved survival when used in the adjuvant setting or concurrent with highly sophisticated radiation or proton treatmentOffers novel and emergent approaches to preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic modalities with an emphasis on the best evidence available from the latest studies and clinical trials

With almost half of the revised and updated content being brand new, "Lung Cancer," Fourth Edition, is an important and vital resource for all medical professionals and students involved in the care and treatment of those struck with this catastrophic illness.

Pocket-sized and easy to use, Pocket Oncology, 3rd Edition, provides up-to-date information essential to caring for patients with cancer, from cancer biology, prevention, screening, treatment, and supportive care to new advances in all areas of the field for both adult and pediatric patients. Written and edited by leading cancer experts at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, this unique, loose-leaf resource is designed for portability and quick reference, with information presented in a bulleted, outline format throughout. Includes new information on CAR-T cell therapy, immunotherapy, precision medicine, and other recent medical oncology treatments and therapies Includes new and updated sections on recently approved oncologic therapies, benign hematology, pediatrics, surgical oncology, interventional radiology, radiation oncology, and telehealth Presents information on adult and pediatric oncologic diseases with coverage of initial clinical presentation, pathophysiology, staging, current standards of care treatments, and active areas of current research Follows the popular Pocket Notebook format, featuring bulleted lists, tables, diagrams, and algorithms that make essential facts easy to find and retain Contains helpful appendices on radiographic response criteria, quality of life assessments, tumor markers, and more, plus a section of clinically essential color photos Ideal as a pocket reference for daily practice as well as an accepted and trusted resource for trainees and other members of the oncology care team

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.

The most important Cancer Book You will Ever Read
What do you do when your world is turned upside-down by a diagnosis of cancer? How do you sort through the dizzying array of conventional and nonconventional treatment options while also searching for meaningful ways of embracing the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of healing?
"The Journey Through Cancer" answers these questions and more. Board-certified oncologist Jeremy Geffen, MD, has spent more than fifteen years providing treatment, guidance, and care for thousands of cancer patients and their families. In this groundbreaking work, he offers real and inspiring solutions to the unique challenges encountered on the cancer journey, while honoring and caring for the whole person--and his or her entire family--at every step along the way.
Full of practical guidance, "The Journey Through Cancer" will help you to:
- Understand the essential aspects of conventional diagnosis, staging, and treatment.
- Make informed and intelligent choices about the most effective, safe, and reliable complementary and alternative therapies.
- Discover new possibilities for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

This text considers that the essential component of successful oncological management is the care of the patinet and the family, and that this should be based on knowledge and understanding of the disease and its treatment. It explains that the major of nurses within a neuro-oncology setting is to provide a service of management and support. The authors discuss how such a service should supply and maintain a programme of rehabilitation, community and palliative care utilizing the skills and expertise of other professionals within the multidisciplinary and primary health care team. The aim of the book is to provide nurses with the skills and knowledge to be able to approach those patents with CNS tumours with a greater confidence and understanding and to make an impact on total patient care.

This volume takes a closer look how the cell organelles Golgi apparatus (also known as the Golgi complex or Golgi body), and centriole are structurally and functionally intertwined. Initially, it was believed that the role of Golgi complex is limited to the packaging and preparation for secretion of various cellular proteins, while the centriole participates in cell division and cilia formation. However, since their discovery nearly 200 years ago, it became clear that these two organelles are interacting, and that their functions are much more complex and far reaching than previously thought. Recent findings indicate that the Golgi-Centriole relationship may be important for directional protein transport, cell polarization and cell cycle progression. Current studies indicate that Golgi and centriole also participate in development and act as cellular and immunological sensors, and that their abnormalities lead to cell and developmental abnormalities, Alzheimer, cancer, various lipid disorders and neurological and immunological diseases in humans. This volume combines the latest information on the structure, molecular composition, and roles of Golgi and centriole in various cellular functions and diseases. The better understanding of the Golgi-centriole interactions may lead to the development of novel therapies for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer.

Resistance to therapies, both targeted and systemic, and metastases to distant organs are the underlying causes of breast cancer-associated mortality. The second edition of Breast Cancer Metastasis and Drug Resistance brings together some of the leading experts to comprehensively understand breast cancer: the factors that make it lethal, and current research and clinical progress. This volume covers the following core topics: basic understanding of breast cancer (statistics, epidemiology, racial disparity and heterogeneity), metastasis and drug resistance (bone metastasis, trastuzumab resistance, tamoxifen resistance and novel therapeutic targets, including non-coding RNAs, inflammatory cytokines, cancer stem cells, ubiquitin ligases, tumor microenvironment and signaling pathways such as TRAIL, JAK-STAT and mTOR) and recent developments in the field (epigenetic regulation, microRNAs-mediated regulation, novel therapies and the clinically relevant 3D models). Experts also discuss the advances in laboratory research along with their translational and clinical implications with an overarching goal to improve the diagnosis and prognosis, particularly that of breast cancer patients with advanced disease.

As bone marrow transplant treatments and chemotherapy develop, the population of neutropenic cancer patients is on the rise. These developments are allowing patients to live longer, but in recent years, they have also led to an increase in previously rare infections and syndromes, whose management is unfamiliar to the average healthcare professional. Infections in Neutropenic Cancer Patients is a crucial resource for medical students, residents, practitioners, health professionals, and researchers. It details the clinical presentation, diagnoses, and management of an array of common infections and syndromes specific to neutropenic cancer patients, including real scenarios accompanied by color photos and radiographic results. Chapters include step-by-step tutorials, access to clinical answers on diagnosis and treatment, and a tabulated summary of the key points.

This book illustrates the importance of the Natural Biometabolites, which offer a rich reservoir of candidate compounds for drug discovery in the battle against cancer. Recent research and development efforts concerning anti-cancer drugs derived from natural products have led to the identification of numerous candidate molecules that inhibit cancer cell proliferation and metastasis using a variety of mechanisms. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for cancer biologists and general oncologists alike, while also benefitting research professionals in Science, Nursing, Medicine, Biochemistry, Genetics and Bioscience who wish to understand the fundamentals of prognosis and prediction in tumorigenesis. Moreover, the book provides an essential platform for understanding drug resistance mechanisms and combatting the growing menace of multidrug resistance.

This book introduces readers to the biology of leukemia stem cells (LSCs) and emphasizes the necessity and importance of targeting LSCs in the treatment of hematopoietic malignancies. It addresses the role of leukemia stem cells in different leukemia diseases and molecular signatures, as well as the metabolic and epigenetic regulation of leukemia stem cell function. With regard to solid tumors, a significant number of blood cancers are believed to be derived from leukemia stem cells (LSCs), which are responsible for disease progression, relapse and drug resistance. Consequently, new therapeutic strategies need to be developed by focusing on the complete eradication of LSCs. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for graduate students and scientists in the fields of cell biology and cancer research etc.

Combinational Therapy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer discusses TNBC at the molecular level from a holistic approach, focusing on combinational strategies targeting various pathways involved in this specific cancer type. Using a monotherapy for the treatment of cancer, especially high-grade tumors like TNBC, is mostly worthless due to the inherent genetic instability of tumor cells to develop intrinsic and acquired resistance. Combination therapy presents more, or at least the same, effectiveness with lower doses of every single agent and decreases the likelihood of chemoresistance, making it essential to understand for multiple therapy options. The book is a valuable resource for cancer researchers, oncologists, graduate students and members of the biomedical field who are interested in the potential of combinational therapies to treat triple negative breast cancer.

This thesis describes the design, development, characterisation and clinical translation of three novel devices for optical endoscopic imaging. Over the past decade, rapid innovation in optics and photonics has led to the availability of low-cost and high-performance optical technologies that can be exploited for biomedical applications, but relatively few have been translated into clinic. The work presented outlines for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the common barriers and unique challenges associated with the translation of optical imaging techniques. To assist developers streamline translation of optical imaging devices in future, a roadmap to clinical translation is outlined, and key translational characteristics are defined. Guided by these, subsequent development of endoscopic devices resulted in preparation and approval of endoscopes for first in human trials in the oesophagus, for early detection of cancer, and in the brain, for delineation of tumour during surgical resection. The thesis culminates in the presentation of results from the first in human use of a compact multispectral endoscope for imaging endogenous tissue contrast in the oesophagus. With continuation of the work as outlined at the end of this thesis, the novel techniques described have the potential to improve the standard of care in their respective indications.

This book shares the latest research and practice-oriented findings in medical sciences with a wide audience. It addresses a range of contemporary issues, often unresolved or contentious, across various medical fields, including advances in the management of hemorrhagic brain stroke. It also discusses metastatic renal cell carcinoma - a global scourge with an extremely poor long-term survival prognosis, the course and sequelae of renal cell carcinoma, as well as advances in targeted molecular therapy with sunitinib, a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Further, it examines the molecular targeting of proliferative signaling of the epidermal growth factor receptor in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. Other articles cover clearance of toxins in hemodialyzed patients; the search for diagnostic and therapeutic markers in the connective tissue disease scleroderma; obesity linked to inappropriate dietary habit; clinical problems related to the diagnosis of sensitization to fungi and its role in asthma; and reasons for the perilous trend of avoiding basic vaccinations in children. Lastly, the book explores the rapid developments in e-health technologies that increase access to health services, particularly for the elderly. The book is intended for clinical specialists, researchers, and all allied health professionals from various fields.

This book contextualizes translational research and provides an up to date progress report on therapies that are currently being targeted in lung cancer. It is now well established that there is tremendous heterogeneity among cancer cells both at the inter- and intra-tumoral level. Further, a growing body of work highlights the importance of targeted therapies and personalized medicine in treating cancer patients. In contrast to conventional therapies that are typically administered to the average patient regardless of the patient's genotype, targeted therapies are tailored to patients with specific traits. Nonetheless, such genetic changes can be disease-specific and/or target specific; thus, the book addresses these issues manifested in the somatically acquired genetic changes of the targeted gene. Each chapter is written by a leading medical oncologist who specializes in thoracic oncology and is devoted to a particular target in a specific indication. Contributors provide an in-depth review of the literature covering the mechanisms underlying signaling, potential cross talk between the target and downstream signaling, and potential emergence of drug resistance.

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.

Peritoneal malignancy is a rapidly growing field within surgical oncology. National and International treatment programmes and training curricula are being established worldwide to co-ordinate treatment and management of these challenging clinical problems. A large body of evidence now exists, but the practical implications of this evidence base remain unclear. The Peritoneal Malignancy Institute in Basingstoke, the largest centre in the world, is at the forefront of new developments and techniques. This manual combines the experience of the PMI with the latest evidence to provide a practice-oriented guide to the successful set up and running of a peritoneal malignancy unit.