Liver and Pancreatic Diseases Management
New therapeutical approaches, advances in oncology and in diagnostic imaging, which reduce the need for invasive techniques and reach an improvement in survival and quality of life in cancer, are considered in this book. Modern literature has been reviewed with special reference to articles of general interest. In the clinical management of patients with liver, bile duct and pancreas diseases, it is important to assess the degree of disturbance and to diagnose the causative insult, and therefore clinical and laboratory methods of assessing each of these pathologies are of high interest. This version is an up-to-date account of diseases of the liver, biliary tract and pancreas, including transplantation, which we trust will be of value for surgeons, physicians and pathologists and also a reference book for medical students.
Lipids in Health and Disease
Lipids are functionally versatile molecules. They have evolved from relatively simple hydrocarbons that serve as depot storages of metabolites and barriers to the permeation of solutes into complex compounds that perform a variety of signalling functions in higher organisms. This volume is devoted to the polar lipids and their constituents. We have omitted the neutral lipids like fats and oils because their function is generally to act as deposits of metabolizable substrates. The sterols are also outside the scope of the present volume and the reader is referred to volume 28 of this series which is the subject of cholesterol. The polar lipids are comprised of fatty acids attached to either glycerol or sphingosine. The fatty acids themselves constitute an important reservoir of substrates for conversion into families of signalling and modulating molecules including the eicosanoids amongst which are the prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leucotrienes. The way fatty acid metabolism is regulated in the liver and how fatty acids are desaturated are subjects considered in the first part of this volume. This section also deals with the modulation of protein function and inflammation by unsaturated fatty acids and their derivatives. New insights into the role of fatty acid synthesis and eicosenoid function in tumour progression and metastasis are presented.
Kaposi Sarcoma Herpesvirus : New Perspectives
Since the identificationof two sequences fromKSHV,wehave learnedmuch about this pathogen as reflected in this book. As it turned out, KSHV itself encodes for a number of cytokines, and induces cellular cytokine secretion, contributing to tumour growth. Moreover, KSHV vFLIP targets the IKKNFκB axis to encourage the inflammatory microenvironment observed by Gallo and his colleagues. KSHV continues to elucidate both mechanisms of viral oncogenesis, and cellular and immune pathways involved in non-viral driven neoplasia.
Cancer Stem Cells : Novel Concepts and Prospects for Tumor Therapy
This book describes the recent developments in the emerging field of cancer stem cells. Their possible impact for the identification of novel treatment paradigms for cancer are discussed. The book will mainly be of interest to scientists and clinicians involved in cancer research, or to students wishing to enter into this area.
Cancer immunotherapy : Methods and protocols
Details multiple areas of new and emerging methods to develop the next generation of immunotherapy treatments. Chapters guide readers through analysis and characterisation of the interactions between tumour and immune cells, and cell engineering tools for cancer treatment, to provide a unique and compelling set of techniques instrumental to work with, and engineer, immune cells. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
Belly-Rippers, surgical innovation and the ovariotomy controversy
This open access book looks at the dramatic history of ovariotomy, an operation to remove ovarian tumours first practiced in the early nineteenth century. Bold and daring, surgeons who performed it claimed to be initiating a new era of surgery by opening the abdomen. Ovariotomy soon occupied a complex position within medicine and society, as an operation which symbolised surgical progress, while also remaining at the boundaries of ethical acceptability. This book traces the operation’s innovation, from its roots in eighteenth-century pathology, through the denouncement of those who performed it as ‘belly-rippers’, to its rapid uptake in the 1880s, when ovariotomists were accused of over-operating. Throughout the century, the operation was never a hair’s breadth from controversy.
Aromatase Inhibitors
Many breast tumours are dependent upon oestrogen for their development and continued growth. Over the last 25 years hormone therapy has progressed from the irreversible destruction of endocrine glands to the use of drugs that reversibly suppress oestrogen synthesis or action. The inhibition of oestrogen synthesis is most readily achieved by inhibiting the final step in the pathway of oestrogen biosynthesis, the reaction which transforms androgens into oestrogens by creating an aromatic ring in the steroid molecule (hence the enzyme's trivial name, aromatase). Whereas the first aromatase inhibitors to be used therapeutically could be shown to produce drug-induced inhibition of the enzyme and therapeutic benefits in patients with breast cancer, they were not particularly potent and lacked specificity. However, second-generation drugs were developed and most recently third-generation inhibitors have evolved which possess remarkable specificity and potency. Initial results from clinical trials suggest that these agents will become the cornerstones of future endocrine therapy.
Aromatase Inhibitors
Many breast tumours are dependent upon oestrogen for their development and continued growth. Over the last 25 years hormone therapy has progressed from the irreversible destruction of endocrine glands to the use of drugs that reversibly suppress oestrogen synthesis or action. The inhibition of oestrogen synthesis is most readily achieved by inhibiting the final step in the pathway of oestrogen biosynthesis, the reaction which transforms androgens into oestrogens by creating an aromatic ring in the steroid molecule (hence the enzyme's trivial name, aromatase). Whereas the first aromatase inhibitors to be used therapeutically could be shown to produce drug-induced inhibition of the enzyme and therapeutic benefits in patients with breast cancer, they were not particularly potent and lacked specificity. However, second-generation drugs were developed and most recently third-generation inhibitors have evolved which possess remarkable specificity and potency. Initial results from clinical trials suggest that these agents will become the cornerstones of future endocrine therapy.
Angiogenesis in Inflammation : Mechanisms and Clinical Correlates
This volume relates the lessons learned from tumour biology applied to inflammation. This issue of Angiogenesis in Inflammation: Mechanisms and Clinical Correlates develops current knowledge on the mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels as they relate to inflammation, including acute and chronic inflammation, neurogenic initiation, and the role of the multiple cellular components that comprise inflammation: granulocytes, macrophages, fibroblasts, dendritic cells and lymphocytes. This is related to inflammatory disease: not only the familiar angiogenesis dependent diseases of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, but also loci such as the lung, gastric ulcers, the eye with uveitis, wound healing and periodontal disease and their therapy, how this knowledge may be used in the discovery of novel therapeutics. The volume brings together experts in each of these fields to link the molecular and cellular processes in angiogenesis to those of inflammation and disease, culminating in a discourse on areas for future therapies.
Andrology for the Clinician
Andrology for the Clinician consists of two parts: In Part One, the busy clinician can easily find the problem-orientated information he or she needs on such issues as * Male factor fertility problems * Male contraception * Male genital tract infection and tumours Part Two contains in-depth subject-orientated information and adds important scientific background information to the recommendations received in Part One. Several leading experts have contributed to this work, which has been extensively subedited by world-renowned editors to ensure a well-structured didactic design and homogeneous content.
Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery ; Vol. 33
This series has already become a classic. In general, one volume is published per year. The advances section presents fields of neurosurgery and related areas in which important recent progress has been made. The technical standards section features detailed descriptions of standard procedures to assist young neurosurgeons in their post-graduate training.
Cancer
The last decade has seen a dramatic shift in anticancer drug research towards agents that aim to target selectively key regulatory and signaling processes known to drive tumorigenesis. A number of these newer agents have now been introduced into clinical practice. This volume reviews advances in cancer chemotherapy research over the last 10 years and will be of interest to scientists engaged in drug research in the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology and startup companies, academia and government institutions. Chapters written by leading experts in their field reflect a range of current medicinal chemistry approaches to small molecule drugs, including anti-hormonal therapy, growth factor inhibition, survival signaling, cell cycle inhibition, anti-angiogenics and anti-nvasives. Each chapter aims to cover the drug target and biological rationale, chemotypes, clinical status and future prospects in this rapidly developing area of drug research.











