CHEMORADIATION IN CANCER THERAPY Hardcover - 2003

The medical uses of ionizing radiation have expanded dramatically since Wilhelm Roentgen first discovered it at the end of the last century.

The combination of chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation to treat solid tumors has now become a common treatment option in many clinical settings. In Chemoradiation in Cancer Therapy, internationally recognized experts in cancer biology and clinical research review the present status of these multimodality approaches to the management of solid tumors and speculate on possible future strategies for their use. As part of their comprehensive survey, the authors detail applications of combined modality therapy in lung, esophageal, breast, gastric, pancreatic, colon, and rectal cancers. They also show how radiation interacts with such chemotherapeutic agents as the platinum complexes, taxanes, and gemcitabine in the treatment of malignant gliomas, and head and neck cancer. Rounding out the presentation is a review of how to integrate new specific molecular-targeted agents into future multimodality therapy. Here the discussion centers on the antibody for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), antiangiogenesis agents, farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs), gene therapies, and signaling pathway inhibitors in combination with radiotherapy, and with or without classical chemotherapeutic agents.
State-of-the-art and forward-looking, Chemoradiation in Cancer Therapy offers oncologists a thorough understanding of today's best current and future strategies available for the treatment of solid tumors by chemoradiation therapy.