Humana Press Inc.

Michael J. Droller, MD and a panel of experienced clinicians bring their strong background in clinical research to bear on the assessment and management of bladder cancer. Their comprehensive discussion summarizes the state-of-the-art in diagnosis and treatment, based on the latest understanding of bladder cancer's epidemiology, carcinogenesis, and tumor markers. Topics of particular interest include the role of genetics and molecular biology in evaluating bladder cancer clinically, the evaluation of the results of systemic treatment in advanced disease, the current status of tumor markers in bladder cancer, and the means for further study in their applicability. Insightful and evidenced-based, Bladder Cancer: Current Diagnosis and Treatment provides active clinicians and clinical investigators with not only a critical survey of the rapidly expanding research in the area, but also a state-of-the-art tutorial on today's optimal assessment and treatment of bladder cancer.

Rubor (redness), tumor (swelling), calor (heat), and dolor (pain) are the classical signs of inflammation. These features are obvious in the skin, where injury or disease causes flare, wheal, and painful burning sensations. Vasodi- tation underlies the flare and heat, plasma exudation the swelling, and acti- tion of sensory nerves relays pain. In chronic conditions, skin biopsies show inflammatory cell infiltrate. Inflammation is not unique to the skin and contr- utes to disease and repair processes in other organ systems in the body. From the viewpoint of this volume, lung inflammation is now recognized as central to the pathophysiology of a number of severe respiratory conditions, the two most common being asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In asthma, and to a lesser extent COPD, there is evidence of vasodilatation, with congestion of blood vessels accompanied by reddening of the airway mucosa, and of plasma exudation, leading to swelling of the airway wall. Similarly, although less pronounced than in the skin, there is evidence of pain, for example, the - pleasant chest sensations associated with asthma attacks. Understanding the pat- genesis of airway inflammation will enable rational design of drugs to effectively treat conditions such as asthma and COPD. However, whereas immediate access to the skin facilitates investigation of disease processes, the lung, although "open to atmosphere," is much less accessible. Consequently, the investigation of lung inflammation is usually indirect. Thus, a wide variety of research techniques are used.

In this richly enhanced second edition, leading nutritionists, public health experts, and clinicians bring up-to-date and extend this now classic guide to improving individual health outcomes through nutrition. The new edition encompasses the broadest range of topics, from cancer and cardiovascular disease to infectious disease in children, from reproductive and prenatal nutrition to global public health nutrition strategies. Each chapter provides an overview of the field, a discussion of the author's own research and its implications, and recommendations for various patient groups based on the totality of evidence rather than on the findings of any single study. Authoritative and readily accessible, Preventive Nutrition: The Comprehensive Guide for Health Professionals, 2nd edition, is the most comprehensive and up-to-date textbook in the field. It provides practicing health professionals with a critical synthesis of all the newest research, demonstrating that the risk of many of the major diseases affecting middle-aged adults can be prevented, or at least delayed, with simple nutritional approaches.

This collection of articles by leading orthopedic and craniofacial surgeons and researchers comprehensively reviews the biology of bone formation and repair, the basic science of autologous bone graft, allograft, bone substitutes, and growth factors, and explore their clinical application in patients with bone repair problems.

The term "muscular dystrophy" (MD) describes a group of primary genetic disorders of muscle that often have a distinctive and recognizable clinical p- notype, accompanied by characteristic, but frequently not pathognomonic, pathological features. Research into the molecular basis of the MDs by a c- bination of positional cloning and candidate gene analysis has provided the basis for a reclassification of these disorders, with genetic and protein data augmenting traditional clinically based nomenclature. These findings have brought insights into the molecular pathogenesis of MD, with an increasing number of potential pathways involved in arriving at a dystrophic phenotype. Some common themes can be recognized, however, including the involvement of five members of the dystrophin-associated complex (dystrophin and four sarcoglycans) in different types of MD, and the involvement of two nuclear envelope proteins in producing an Emery-Dreifuss MD phenotype. Other d- ease-associated genes appear to cause MD in a completely unrelated way, such as the involvement of calpain 3 in a form of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Section 1 of Muscular Dystrophy: Methods and Protocols reviews tra- tional strategies used to identify MDs. Meantime, techniques developed as a result of the research strategies described previously have become an integral part of the management of many patients with MD and their families, and these techniques are addressed in Sections 2 (DNA-based tests) and 3 (p- tein-based analyses). The continued effort to translate this enhanced und- standing into a molecular cure or treatment for MD is reviewed in Section 4.

The purpose of Renal Cancer: Methods and Protocols is to introduce the surgeon, clinician, investigator, and research scientist to the basic methods employed in the diagnosis and treatment of renal cancer. Treatment of localized renal cancer is surgical. Treatment of metastasis with resection, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy has had limited results. Therefore, new avenues of treatment are necessary. In planning this work, I have attempted to incorporate coverage by specialists from a variety of disciplines, each applying their individual expertise in renal cancer therapy. Though many of the participating authors are urologists, there are also valuable contributions from medical oncologists, laboratory inv- tigators, and pathologists. One of the inherent problems in publishing a book that describes molecular techniques, especially those techniques that are rapidly evolving, is that some of these may become obsolete after a few years. However, many of the procedures detailed here are standard approaches that have already wi- stood the test of time. Reverse transcriptase PCR, or RT-PCR, a technique that produces m- tiple copies of selected sequences of DNA, has a sensitivity of a millionfold amplication of a single cell, and thus constitutes a very precise technique for measuring the presence of tumor cells. By combining this technique with genomic hybridization, cadherin,ss and metalloproteinase expression we may then reveal other important factors in the detection, staging, aggressiveness, and treatment of this disease.

Leading cancer biologists and clinical researchers comprehensively review the latest basic research and its translational significance for the molecular biology and genetics of prostate cancer and its application in developing novel therapeutics. Highlights of recent molecular genetics research include new light on inactivated tumor suppressor genes, HPC families, the role of the androgen receptor, the progression of prostate cancer, and promising results from transcriptome profiling and proteomics. Research into the basic biology and regulatory mechanisms controlling prostate cancer growth and progression has revealed many new possibilities for therapeutic intervention, including cell adhesion molecules, the androgen receptor, use of the nuclear matrix, Caveolin-1, and the prostate-specific membrane antigen. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, Prostate Cancer: Biology, Genetics, and the New Therapeutics synthesizes all the major recent work that is not only rapidly unraveling the mysteries of prostate cancer, but also dramatically improving today's therapeutic approaches.

International radiation oncologists, surgeons, and scientists comprehensively review the techniques, indications, and results of using intraoperative electrons (IOERT) and high-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-IORT). State-of-the-art topics range from methods and techniques of treatment and issues of normal tissue/organ tolerance to IORT, to techniques and results by disease-site, as well as future possibilities. The disease-site chapters cover every body part for which the potential merit of IORT has been demonstrated, with disease-specific treatment factors presented by a radiation oncologist and a surgeon. The diseases range from GI cancers to CNS and breast malignancies. International in authorship and comprehensive in scope, Intraoperative Irradiation: Techniques and Results offers a cutting-edge resource and reference for surgeons, radiation oncologists, physicists, anesthesiologists, medical oncologists, and all others involved in providing IORT and HDR-IORT procedures and cancer care today.