Full Description
Neoplastic disease confined to the liver is an important worldwide problem. In the industrialized nations, metastatic disease of the most common cancers involves the liver in upwards of 50% of cases. Primary hepatic tumors are virtually epidemic in most third world countries and certainly constitute one of the ten most common causes of cancer deaths on a worldwide scale. Amazingly, little specific attention has been devoted to therapeutic approaches of liver and biliary tumors until recently. We attribute this apparent lack of interest to the uniformly poor progno sis of patients so afflicted, and attribute the renewed interest to the exciting new developments in diagnostic and therapeutic technology as well as in tumor biology. The purpose of this book is to collect in one volume an integrated selection of articles that would provide the therapist with a comprehensive, yet practical, overview of liver cancer. We believe the contributors to the book are superbly qualified experts on the various subjects and provide in-depth information on respective fields. The edit ing process for us was not only educational but thrilling as the high quality and complementary nature of the chapters became evident as we received them. Be cause many areas in the field of liver cancer are controversial, the reader will notice that contradictory opinions are presented by some of the authors.
Contents
I. Pathology and Natural History.- 1. Pathology of liver tumors.- 2. Natural history of liver cancer.- II. Diagnosis of Liver Cancer.- 3. Radiologic techniques for detection and evaluation of liver cancer.- 4. Nuclear medicine aspects of primary and secondary liver cancer.- III. Surgery in Liver Cancer.- 5. Surgical anatomy of the liver and biliary tree.- 6. Surgical therapy of liver cancer.- 7. Hepatic artery ligation for liver cancer.- 8. Hepatic artery embolization for liver cancer.- 9. Surgical aspects of intrahepatic artery therapy.- IV. Chemotherapy of Liver Cancer.- 10. Chemotherapy of liver cancer.- 11. New chemotherapeutic agents in liver cancer.- 12. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy: a possible role in the treatment of hepatic metastases.- 13. Pharmacologic studies of hepatic intra-arterial chemotherapy.- 14. Regional chemotherapy of liver cancer.- 15. Regional arterial therapy in the management of primary liver neoplasms.- 16. Pumps and catheters for intrahepatic artery therapy.- 17. Adjuvant therapy for prevention of liver metastases.- V. Radiation Therapy of Liver Cancer.- 18. Radiation therapy of hepatobiliary tumors.- VI. Combined Modality Therapy.- 19. Combination chemotherapy and whole liver irradiation for hepatic tumors.- 20. Therapy of metastatic carcinoid tumor and the carcinoid syndrome.- 21. Regional-arterial chemotherapy or arterial embolization in the management of various stages of colon cancer.- 22. Thermochemotherapy of liver metastases.- 23. Combined hepatic arterial occlusion and chemotherapy for primary or secondary tumors of the liver.
