Emerging Molecular Signaling Pathways and Therapeutic Targets in the Genitourinary Immune Microenvironment


Book Description

It is well known that the immune microenvironment is critical to the progression of genitourinary malignancies and benign diseases. A variety of cellular and molecular properties of the immune microenvironment may influence disease outcome by altering the balance of suppressive versus inflammatory or cytotoxic responses. Emerging evidence suggests that immunoediting is a key factor of phenotypic change, immunological alterations caused by physical activity or drug treatments could promote antitumor or anti-inflammatory activity. Conversely, microenvironment deficits or dysregulation can instigate or worsen pathological progression, thereby contributing to urinary disease development and progression. Thus, understanding how immune microenvironments react and maintain appropriate antitumor or anti-inflammatory responses is important for identifying actionable therapies to improve genitourinary health. Recent technological developments, particularly in the areas of genetic modification and redox indicators, provide hopeful new treatments not only in urinary cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, relatively rare adrenocortical cancer, and penile cancer but also in begin diseases like kidney stones and kidney injuries. The purpose of this topic is to provide up-to-date reviews and original articles that highlight research on immunological mediators of tumor progression and inflammatory-related genitourinary diseases, which we hope will not only integrate our current understanding but crystallize nascent questions that will help move the field forward. This research topic aims to inspire novel insights into the immunity mechanisms, novel therapeutic targets, and effective combinational strategies of urinary immunotherapies.




Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma


Book Description

Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma represents the first book of its kind to be dedicated solely to UTUC. It's aim is to improve understanding and eventually care of a disease that is greatly understudied and underappreciated, yet commonly dealt with by many medical and urologic oncologists. The volume features new data regarding genetic susceptibility, gene expression studies and causative factors; contemporary concepts and controversies regarding diagnosis and staging of UTUC; prediction tools and their value in treatment decisions within each disease stage and patient selection and treatment options such as endoscopic management, distal ureterectomy, radical nephroureterectomy and chemotherapy. Up-to-date information regarding boundaries of surgical resection, indication and extent of lymphadenectomy is covered as well as the role of perioperative/neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with high-risk UTUC. Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma will be of great value to all Urologists, Medical Oncologists and fellows in Urologic Oncology as well as upper level residents in training in Urology and Medical Oncology.




Metastatic Cancer: Clinical and Biological Perspectives


Book Description

Most cancer deaths are a result of metastasis. The spread of a primary tumor to colonize neighboring and distant organs is the relentless endgame that defines the neoplastic process. Patients who have been diagnosed with cancer are treated to prevent both the recurrence of the tumor at the site of origin and metastasis that would re-stage them as advanced stage IV cancer. Historically and still with some types of cancer, stage IV is perceived by patients as “terminal.” Fortunately, recent molecular therapies have extended the lives of patients with advanced cancer and reassuringly people living with metastatic disease increasingly visit our clinics. What is the path forward? Given that the consilience of science and medicine is a dynamic art from which therapies arise, it would be misguided to consider any single work adequate at capturing the horizon for research. So with humility we constructed this text as primer for scientists. It begins with a broad introduction to the clinical management of common cancers. This is intended to serve as a foundation for investigators to consider when developing basic science hypotheses. Unquestionably, medical and surgical care of cancer patients reveals biology and dictates how novel therapeutics will ultimately be evaluated in clinical trials. The second section of this text offers provocative and evolving insights that underscore the breadth of science involved in the elucidation of cancer metastasis biology. The text concludes with information that integrates scientific and clinical foundations to highlight translational research. This book serves as a framework for scientists to conceptualize clinical and translational knowledge on the complexity of disease that is metastatic cancer.




Signal Transduction in Cancer


Book Description

One of the most exciting areas of cancer research now is the development of agents which can target signal transduction pathways that are activated inappropriately in malignant cells. The understanding of the molecular abnormalities which distinguish malignant cells from their normal counterparts has grown tremendously. This volume summarizes the current research on the role that signal transduction pathways play in the pathogenesis of cancer and how this knowledge may be used to develop the next generation of more effective and less toxic anticancer agents. Series Editor comments: "The biologic behavior of both normal and cancer cells is determined by critical signal transduction pathways. This text provides a comprehensive review of the field. Leading investigators discuss key molecules that may prove to be important diagnostic and/or therapeutic targets."




Rare Genitourinary Tumors


Book Description

Rare Genitourinary Tumors offers the reader an up-to-date discussion of the less common neoplasms affecting the urinary tract and reproductive organs. Each authoritative chapter provides and in-depth discussion that is frequently not found in other urologic oncology textbooks. A valuable reference for urologists, oncologists, and those in specialty training, this volume provides ready access to information on etiology, incidence, risk factors, diagnosis, prognosis, insights from molecular pathology and, where applicable, data from clinical trials. The practical treatment guidelines included for each tumor type are written by experts and fully referenced.




Inflammation and Cancer


Book Description

This volume examines in detail the role of chronic inflammatory processes in the development of several types of cancer. Leading experts describe the latest results of molecular and cellular research on infection, cancer-related inflammation and tumorigenesis. Further, the clinical significance of these findings in preventing cancer progression and approaches to treating the diseases are discussed. Individual chapters cover cancer of the lung, colon, breast, brain, head and neck, pancreas, prostate, bladder, kidney, liver, cervix and skin as well as gastric cancer, sarcoma, lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.




Apoptosis and Cancer Chemotherapy


Book Description

The past few years have witnessed an astonishing international effort that established the role of some 20 new molecules in apoptosis and added activation or suppression of apoptosis to the accepted biological functions of a great many others already familiar in cancer biology. Some of these molecules are receptors, transducing cytokine-mediated signals; others appear to intensify or diminish the risk that a compro mised cell will fire its apoptosis effector mechanism. All are of interest as potential targets for tumor therapy, and some may prove to be control points influenced in the pathogenesis of cancer and other diseases as diverse as viral infection, neurodegenerative disorders, and stroke. Sometimes, in the midst of these developments, a kind of euphoria ap pears to have gripped the research community, with the expectation that apoptosis will afford explanations to many unsolved questions in cellu lar regulation. This book, in a series of thoughtful and provocative ar ticles--some from established leaders in the field, and others from younger scientists--seeks to redress the balance.




Unravelling Cancer Signaling Pathways: A Multidisciplinary Approach


Book Description

Unravelling the intricate cell signalling networks and their significance in cancer poses major intellectual challenge. Keeping this in mind, the book aims at understanding the mechanism of action of different proteins and their complexes in the cancer signalling pathways. Hence, the proposed book that comprises 20 chapters provides a comprehensive introduction on cell signalling, its alterations in cancer, molecules that have been popular targets as well as the ones that are emerging as targets. In addition, it discusses different forms of therapy that are coming up for its treatment. Other than that, a major portion of the book is focused on studying different disciplines at the interface of biology and other areas of science that are being used to understand cancer biology in depth.




Tumor Invasion and Metastasis


Book Description

The clinical significance of tumor spread has always been appreciated. Yet, in spite of the pioneering work and outstanding contributions of investigators such as D. Coman, H. Green, B. Fisher, S. Wood and I. Zeidman, studies on metastasis rarely achieved the popularity afforded to more esoteric areas of tumor biology. Tumor dissemination, occurring as it does in a responding host and being composed of a series of dynamic int~ractions, is a highly complex phenomenon. Few investigators were brave enough to attempt to unravel the mechanisms involved. Paradoxically, this very complexity may have contributed, in part, to the recent upsurge of interest in metastasis research. More and more researchers are becoming fascinated by the complexities of the cellular interactions involved in tumor spread. Accompanying this intellectual stimulation have been technological advances in related fields which allow the derivation of new model systems. The mechanisms of metastatic spread are increasingly amenable to both the reductionist and holistic approaches and it is the purpose of this volume to present many of these model systems while emphasizing the intricacy and complexity of the processes they mimic. We have attempted to emphasize two topics not previously covered in depth in previous books on metastases. These are in vitro models of invasion and in teractions of tumor cells with connective tissue.