This 6th volume of OESO has the advantage to address a topic which is at the forefront of concern for all those involved with disease of the upper digestive tract: an entity inserted in the epidemiological sequence of GERD, a benign affection among the most widespread in the world, Barrett's esophagus, has become today a problem of Public Health. Its recognised propensity to degenerate has, in fact, made it one of the benign lesions of the upper digestive tract which legitimately arouses the convergent interest of clinicians, as well as those devoted to fundamental research. Large scale epidemiological studies, the development of even sharper means for early detection of the precursory signs of its degeneration, the extreme diversity of the treatments available today, all lend new perspectives to the different centres of interest of this book.

Drug-induced mucosal damage is of immense importance in gastroenterology. It is imperative that clinicians understand how these lesions come about, what the sometimes devastating consequences are and what can be done to prevent or to treat such calamities. Drug-induced damage is bound to increase in the future as the population ages and polypharmacy becomes the rule instead of the exception. Hopes for improvement were shattered when the long term consequences of COX-2 inhibition became available. Is the COX-1/COX-2 concept truly obsolete? Several issues are discussed by European experts in the second part of the book. What the clinician should know about non acid, weakly acid or biliary reflux is discussed in depth. Novel developments of gastrointestinal neuropathies and motor disorders concentrate on IBS, pseudo-obstruction and faecal incontinence. Our surgical colleagues will certainly be interested in novel minimally invasive procedures. Finally all will learn from a critical analysis of novel diagnostic imaging modalities.

John Libbey Eurotext continues to publish the proceedings of the gastroenterology seminars taught by leading European specialists and organised by the European Association for Gastroenterology and Endoscopy (EAGE). The aim of the book is to describe major clinical and therapeutic progress observed during 2001. It offers a complete overview of the latest techniques and therapies used to treat malignant gastro-intestinal tumours.