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The success rate for treatment of primary neoplasms has improved sig nificantly due to improved surgical, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy methods, and by supportive patient care. In contrast, the treatment of cancer metastases, the cause of most cancer deaths, has not been very successful. Approximately 50% or more of patients with primary malignant neoplasms already have established metastases. Consequently, the most important problem in cancer treatment is the destruction or prevention of metastases. Metastases research has obvious clinical importance. Yet it has only been recently that investigators have attempted to study the mechanisms in volved in this process. This is in part due to the complexity of metastases formation. A metastatic colony is the result of a complicated series of steps involving mUltiple tumor host interactions. It is expected that multiple biochemical factors and gene products derived both from the host and the tumor cell may be required for the metastasizing tumor cell to invade, survive host defenses, travel in the circulation, arrest and adhere in the target organ, invade out, and grow as a metastatic colony. Some of these factors have recently been identified by investigators who have focused on individual steps in the metastatic process and have employed new technologies in immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology. The purpose of this volume is to capture some of the excitement in the field of metastases based on such new discoveries.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
One - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Aspects.- 1. Biochemical and molecular biology approaches to study cancer metastases.- 2. Use of the chick embryo in studying the molecular genetics of metastasis.- 3. Integral membrane adhesion glycoproteins: What is their fate during metastasis?.- 4. Peptide fragments of fibronectin and laminin: Role in cell adhesion and inhibition of experimental tumor metastasis.- 5. Role of ras oncogenes in experimental models of metastasis.- 6. Expression of p21ras gene products in fresh primary and metastatic human tumor tissue.- 7. A role for differentiation arrest in the development of neural crest tumors.- 8. Genetic and epigenetic regulation of the metastatic phenotype: A basis for resolving the controversy regarding its selective or random nature and variable phenotypic stability.- 9. Cytochemical cell typing of metastatic tumors according to their cytoskeletal proteins.- 10. Biochemistry and molecular biology RAW117 large cell lymphoma.- 11. Karyotypic progression and metastasis formation of human tumors.- 12. Morphological and functional alterations of occludens, adherens, and gap junctions in cancer.- 13. Pattern of basement membrane degradation by metastatic tumor cell enzymes.- Two - Immunologic Mechanisms.- 14. Gene products of the major histocompatibility complex control the metastatic phenotype of tumor cells.- 15. Generation of metastatic cells via somatic cell fusion: A possible mechanism for tumor progression in-vivo.- 16. The recognition and destruction of metastatic cells by tumoricidal macrophages.- 17. Biological response modifiers for the therapy of metastases.- 18. Differences in cell surface characteristics of poorly and highly metastatic Lewis lung tumor variants.- 19. Characteristics of LL2 and itslectin-resistant not metastasizing variants.- 20. A role for cell surface sialic acid in liberating metastatic tumor cells from host control.- Three - Clinical Perspectives and Applications.- 21. Tumor heterogeneity and empirical clinical cancer chemotherapy: Current status and future prospects.- 22. Hormonal regulation of metastases: Prospects for pharmacological manipulation.- 23. Use of anti-tumor MABs for diagnosis and immunotherapy of human tumors.- 24. New approaches to the adoptive immunotherapy of established metastatic cancer using lymphokine-activated killer cells and recombinant interleukin-2.- 25. Preclinical screening of biological response modifiers: Application to the treatment of metastatic disease.
Zusammenfassung
The success rate for treatment of primary neoplasms has improved sig nificantly due to improved surgical, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy methods, and by supportive patient care. In contrast, the treatment of cancer metastases, the cause of most cancer deaths, has not been very successful. Approximately 50% or more of patients with primary malignant neoplasms already have established metastases. Consequently, the most important problem in cancer treatment is the destruction or prevention of metastases. Metastases research has obvious clinical importance. Yet it has only been recently that investigators have attempted to study the mechanisms in volved in this process. This is in part due to the complexity of metastases formation. A metastatic colony is the result of a complicated series of steps involving mUltiple tumor host interactions. It is expected that multiple biochemical factors and gene products derived both from the host and the tumor cell may be required for the metastasizing tumor cell to invade, survive host defenses, travel in the circulation, arrest and adhere in the target organ, invade out, and grow as a metastatic colony. Some of these factors have recently been identified by investigators who have focused on individual steps in the metastatic process and have employed new technologies in immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology. The purpose of this volume is to capture some of the excitement in the field of metastases based on such new discoveries.
