The purpose of this book is to provide some basic information regarding the fundamentals of magnetic resonance (MR) for all those who are less familiar with the technique and interested in MR spectroscopy and its possible applications in research and clinical practice. It will stimulate the reader to look more closely at the various topics covered by the contributors to this volume: tumor cell metabolism, kidney function, organ viability. Finally, several applications of high-field spectroscopy and imaging are illustrated. The book focusses on proven and possible clinical applications of MR in nephrourology: renal cell carcinoma, metabolic investigation of the kidney and pretransplant assessment of organ viability. The examples are thoroughly discussed and abundantly illustrated. The reader will benefit from this book by receiving a review of research and clinical aspects of MR simultaneously.

Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) cannot be cured by surgery alone. Its resillience to irradiation and chemotherapy demands a new approach to the management of this disease. This book provides an overview of the scientific and clinical developments of RCC, and clarifies the fields ofimmunotherapy and immunobiology. The book contains a compilation of approaches that will enhance the effectiveness of the management of advancedRCC, even in the absence of definitive pre-clinical data. These require additional study and will stimulate the reassessment of preliminary results.Furthermore, preliminary results of already implemented clinical trials withbiological modifiers are presented. Of special interest are the current achievements in the field of immunotherapy using topically and subcutaneously low dosage combinations of cytokines. This concise volume will benefit those seeking a thorough review of the research and the clinical aspects of RCC simultaneously.

The management of advanced renal cell carcinoma is still problematic. Surgery, although the therapy of choice for locally advanced renal tumors, is still controversial as the treatment for metastases. The role of surgery in the management of patients with pulmonary, bony, and liver metastasis is one of the subject matters discussed in this book. Our results with series of patients undergoing resection of metastases from the lung, bone, and liver show that surgery may be appropriate in selected patients with a good performance status, although most of them certainly cannot be cured by this procedure alone, i.e., in the absence of effective adjuvant therapies. As recent developments show, new strategies for immunotherapy of renal cell carcinoma represent a modest advance over traditional approaches in the treatment of this cancer, such as chemo- and radiotherapy. Clinical trials employing recombinant interferon-a and interleukin 2 produced response rates in up to 30% of patients treated, as evidenced by the European Immunotherapy Trials Program. The adverse reactions and the lack of efficacy in the majority of patients warrants the search for new immunotherapeutic approaches.