Hepatobiliary Cancer

When one deals with cancer, the hepatobiliary malignancies present a chal lenge to the oncologists that can be characterized as a series of unsolved clinical and biological dilemmas. Liver metastases from colorectal and other gastrointestinal malignancies, hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocar cinoma, and gall bladder cancer present an array of problems but have two features in common. These are high morbidity and mortality with an overall poor result from treatment. Why is it that hepatobiliary cancer carries with it such a dismal prognosis? First of all, these diseases present, for the most part, in an advanced state. To this point in time the oncologist has had no help from early diagnosis or screening. Only the occasional patient followed by ultrasound or a tumor marker has the disease diagnosed in an asymptomatic state. By the time these diseases become symptomatic, curative treatment options have usually disappeared. Evolution has placed the liver in a protected position in order to avoid injury to the soft parenchyma. As with many other internal organs, the nerve supply is extremely limited. These two anatomic features result in a great lack of early warning signs of cancer.

Hepatobiliary Cancer addresses the field with contributions from talented practitioners from around the world in surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, medical oncology, and integrative medicine. The text approaches these cancers by type – biliary and liver tumors – and in terms of diagnostic techniques and therapies: surgical, ablative, systemic and regional chemotherapies, biologic, and complementary. Hepatobiliary Cancer is essential reading for anyone expert in, or engaged in learning about, treating hepatobiliary cancers. Heavily illustrated with photomicrographs, photographs, drawings, and tables to support and illuminate the text, it is a concise, yet comprehensive guide to hepatobiliary cancer diagnosis and treatment.

This book explores in detail the primary liver cancers of hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma examining the pathogenesis of disease along with diagnosis and current management options together with exploration of future treatment strategies and areas of controversy. Furthermore, the book highlights management of the common secondary malignancies and touches on benign liver tumours and how to best manage these. Written in a clear and didactic style, this volume includes summaries of the key learning points and questions so that the reader can gauge their knowledge and understanding. This book is aimed to broaden the knowledge base of primary care physicians, general physicians along with specialists in hepatology, oncology and hepato-biliary surgery

Liver Cancer provides the general surgeon, surgical oncologist, and medical oncologist with the most current standard of multimodality care for hepatobiliary cancer. Surgical approaches, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, and radiotherapy are all presented.

Hepatobiliary cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancers, have high rate of mortality and low survival rate. The third volume of the “Interdisciplinary Cancer Research” series, entitled “Hepatobiliary Cancers: An Interdisciplinary Approach” publishes comprehensive volumes on mechanisms of hepatobiliary cancers and therapeutic modalities and presents the most updated and peer-reviewed chapters on hepatobiliary cancers. This interdisciplinary series is of special value to researchers working on cell biology, immunology, biochemistry, genetics, and practitioners working on oncology and gastroenterology. This is the main concept of Cancer Immunology Project (CIP), which is a part of Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). This interdisciplinary book will be of special value for researchers, oncologists, and gastroenterologists who wish to extend their knowledge on hepatobiliary cancers.

Hepatobiliary cancer refers to primary malignant tumors originating in cells of the liver, bile ducts, and gallbladder. Globally, primary liver cancer, which includes hepatocellular carcinoma (~75 % of all cases) and intrahepatic biliary cancer or cholangiocarcinoma (~10-15 % 0f all cases) is the 6th most commonly diagnosed cancer and 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. The vast majority of these highly malignant cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage where treatment options are limited and patient survival outcomes are poor. The biological and therapeutic challenges posed by hepatobililiary cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are daunting, emphasizing a critical need to review and assess current and evolving basic, translational, and clinical research focused on addressing the critical obstacles that continue to limit progress towards achieving significant improvements in HCC and CCA clinical management and patient survival outcomes. Towards this goal, this special edition of Advances in Cancer Research is focused on providing a comprehensive, timely and authoritative reviews covering such topics of significant scientific and clinical relevance, including hepatobiliary cancer risk mechanisms and risk-predictive molecular biomarkers; causes and functional intricacies of inter- and intratumor heterogeneity; novel insights into the role of tumor microenvironment and key signaling pathways in promoting hepatobiliary cancer progression, therapeutic resistance and immunosuppression; emerging biomarkers of HCC and CCA prognosis; advances in molecular genomics for personalizing tumor classification and targeted therapies; innovative preclinical cell culture modeling for hepatobiliary cancer drug discovery; and current and emerging trends in hepatobiliary cancer molecular therapeutic targeting and immunotherapies. Up-to date review of hepatobiliary cancers molecular genetics, novel predictive molecular biomarkers, and distinct mechanisms of inter-and intratumor heterogeneity Novel insights into the role of tumor microenvironment as a promoter of hepatobiliary cancer progression and therapeutic resistance, as well as an emerging therapeutic target Current and emerging approaches and strategies for advancing personalized molecular therapeutic targeting and immunotherapy of hepatobiliary cancers

This book describes the pathways of dissemination of primary liver, biliary, and pancreatic neoplasms and proposes a practical and clinically driven approach to their imaging. The typical dissemination pathways for hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, exocrine pancreatic carcinoma, and neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors are systematically reviewed, and more unusual pathways are also documented. The content is presented in an extremely schematic way, with numerous high-quality graphical illustrations and multimodality images (US, CT, MRI, and PET) that are accompanied by clear explanatory text. The clinical significance of findings and potential therapeutic options are explained whenever appropriate. In addition, relevant background information is provided on the role of morphopathological drivers of cancer spread and anatomy.