Pancreatic Cancer (Recent Results in Cancer Research, Vol. 177)

About this book

Although pancreatic cancer is one of the most serious forms of cancers, the outlook for patients could be improved. The lack of clinical symptoms of early, surgically removable disease most often limits curative treatment options. The aggressive tumor cell biology, leading to a locally advanced nature of the disease and to early metastases, allows curative resection in only 20% of patients at the time of diagnosis. Patients are therefore often faced with a dreadful prognosis from a state of almost full physical health. Furthermore, because there is a high recurrence rate after curative resection, treatment of this tumor entity becomes a great challenge.

This book gives insight into the current understanding of the management of pancreatic cancer and considers recent findings in cancer research. It provides answers to questions of how to know when cancer is respectable, how to proceed when the diagnosis comes too late for a curative approach, and how to assess different study results. Moreover, it highlights new upcoming therapeutic options and experimental approaches, which might further improve the future prospects for patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Written for:

Clinicians and practitioners

Keywords:

• Adjuvant therapy
• Advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer
• Chemoradiation
• Chemotherapy of advanced pancreatic cancer
• Diagnosis of pancreatic cancer
• Postoperative staging
• Src kinase and pancreatic cancer

Table of contents

1 Pancreatic Cancer: Step by Step Forward - H. Riess, A. Goerke, H. Oettle

Part I Diagnosis

2 CT and MR Imaging of Pancreatic Cancer - C. Stroszczynski, R. Grützmann, T. Kittner
3 Nuclear Medical Methods for the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer: Positron Emission Tomography - H. Amthauer, J. Ruf

Part II Therapy and Monitoring of Disease

4 Surgical Techniques for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer - M. Bahra, U. Neumann
5 Postoperative Staging of Pancreatic Cancer - C. Röcken, M. P. A. Ebert
6 Adjuvant Therapy in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer - L. Roll
7 First-Line Chemotherapy in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer - U. Pelzer
8 Second-Line Chemotherapy in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer - U. Pelzer
9 Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Strategies for Chemoradiation - A. Kaiser, V. Budach
10 Primary Advanced Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer - R. Wilkowski, M. Wolf, V. Heinemann
11 Brachytherapy of Liver Metastases - T. Denecke, E. Lopez Hänninen
12 Detection of Disease Recurrence and Monitoring of Therapy - J. Ruf, H. Amthauer
13 Surgical Palliation of Advanced Pancreatic Cancer - M. Bahra, D. Jacob

Part III New Treatment Strategies and Outlook

14 Antiangiogenic Strategies in Pancreatic Cancer - H. Riess
15 Targeted Therapy of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer - S. Heeger
16 Antisense Therapeutics for Tumor Treatment: The TGF-beta2 Inhibitor AP 12009 in Clinical Development Against Malignant Tumors - K.-H. Schlingensiepen, B. Fischer-Blass, S. Schmaus, S. Ludwig
17 NF-? B as a Molecular Target in the Therapy of Pancreatic Carcinoma - S. Sebens, A. Arlt, H. Schäfer
18 Immunotherapeutic Approaches in Pancreatic Cancer - J. Stieler
19 Src Kinase and Pancreatic Cancer - A. Hilbig