Bücher der Reihe Developments in Oncology

KENNETH A. FOON and ALTON C. MORGAN, JR. Passive immunotherapy using heteroantisera for the treatment of cancer in animals and humans has been studied for over 50 years. Attempts have been made to treat animal tumors with sera from immunized syngeneic, allogeneic, or xenogeneic animals. A number of studies of passive immunotherapy using heterologous antisera in humans have also been performed. These studies have generally been attempted in patients with large tumor burdens, and as would be expected, results have been transient at best. A wide variety of solid tumors as well as leukemias and lym­ phomas have been treated with antisera raised in sheep, horses, rabbits, and goats. Problems such as anaphylaxis, serum sick­ ness, and severe cytopenias have been encountered with these antisera. There are a number of potential mechanisms by which unconju­ gated antibodies might be cytotoxic to tumor cells. Antibodies bound to the cell surface membrane of tumor cells may lead to cell lysis by complement-dependent or antibody-dependent cellu­ lar cytotoxicity. Circulating tumor cells bound by antibody may be more susceptible to phagocytosis by the reticuloendothelial system. Antibody bound to the cell surface membrane of tumor cells may enhance immunogenicity of the tumor cell leading to activation of the host's immune system.

During the past four decades knowledge about biological effects of ionizing radiations on mammalian cells, normal tissues and tumours has increased enormously and has enabled radiotherapists to obtain a better insight into the advantages and disadvantages of cancer treatments with modified regimens of irradiations and combinations with chemotherapeutic agents. Even for the older scientists and clinicians who have wit­ nessed all these developments and have contributed to the vast amount of information, it is difficult to integrate this knowledge and to apply it in their daily work. For younger workers it is often difficult to select the important main concepts and results from the overwhelming number of publications. It is evident that a book which provides an integrated view of basic and applied radiation oncology can be of great value to students, scientists and, most importantly, to clinicians who can devote only part of their time to the task of understanding the radiobiological background of their application of radiation in cancer treatment. This book "Radiation Oncology" is written by a radiotherapist who has for a long time participated in the integration of basic knowledge and clinical experience. He has selected radiobiological information which is considered important to radiotherapy and in the description and interpretation of normal tissue tolerance and tumour eradication probability, he illustrates how basic knowledge can be applied clinically.

Proceedings of a symposium presented at the University of Southern California, Department of Pathology and the Kenneth J. Norris Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, Los Angeles, U.S.A., November 16-17, 1984

Proceedings of the International Workshop on Monoclonal Antibodies and Breast Cancer, held in San Francisco, California, November 8-9, 1984

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Malignant Lymphomas, Lugano, Switzerland, June 13-16, 1984

Proceedings of the First International Symposium on the Organ Directed Toxicities of Anticancer Drugs convened at Burlington, VT, June 4-6, 1987.

Causes and Control of Colorectal Cancer: A Model for Cancer Prevention is a ground- breaking monograph which takes a global, multidisciplinary approach to the causes, carcinogenesis and control of colorectal cancer.

In recent years much progress has been made in knowledge and understanding of the biology of cutaneous melanoma. A post-graduate Boerhaave course "Cutaneous Melanoma and Precursor Lesions" was held at Leiden University on 12 and 13 April,.

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Detroit Cancer Symposium, held in Detroit, Michigan, April 12-13, 1984

Proceedings of the Symposium on Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics of Cancer Metastasis, Bethesda, Maryland, March 18-20, 1985

The observation in the 1950s that nitrogen mustard and other toxic chemicals could induce antitumor responses in patients with refractory lymphoma initiated a massive search for active chemotherapeutic agents.