Carsten Nieder – författare

This book, now in its second edition, provides a comprehensive overview of current re-irradiation strategies, with detailed discussion of re-irradiation methods, technical aspects, the role of combined therapy with anticancer drugs and hyperthermia, and normal tissue tolerance. In addition, disease specific chapters document recent clinical results and future research directions. All chapters from the first edition have been revised and updated to take account of the latest developments and research findings, including those from prospective studies. Due attention is paid to the exciting developments in the fields of proton irradiation and frameless image-guided ablative radiotherapy. The book documents fully how refined combined modality approaches and significant technical advances in radiation treatment planning and delivery have facilitated the re-irradiation of previously exposed volumes, allowing both palliative and curative approaches to be pursued at various disease sites. Professionals involved in radiation treatment planning and multimodal oncology treatment will find it to be an invaluable aid in understanding the benefits and limitations of re-irradiation and in designing prospective trials.

Over recent decades, combined modality treatment has drastically improved the cure rates for various malignant tumors. Further progress is expected through the design of sound combinations involving recently developed drugs. The first part of this book summarizes the rationale and the preclinical data for combined treatment with ionizing radiation and pharmaceutical agents. Individual chapters focus on different forms of combined treatment, with due consideration being given to a range of drugs and to emerging combinations with small molecules and antibodies. The second part of the book comprises a series of disease-specific chapters in which the clinical results of combined modality treatment are presented. The text, written by acknowledged experts, is specifically designed to be accessible to professionals from the various disciplines involved in multidisciplinary cancer care and to residents in radiation oncology training programs.

A look at the recent oncology literature or a search of the common databases reveals a steadily increasing number of nomograms and other prognostic models. These models may predict the risk of relapse, lymphatic spread of a given malignancy, toxicity, survival, etc. Pathology information, gene signatures, and clinical data may all be used to compute the models. This trend reflects increasingly individualized treatment concepts, the need for approaches that achieve a favorable balance between effectiveness and side-effects, and the goal of optimal resource utilization reflecting prognostic knowledge. In order to avoid misuse, it is important to understand the limits and caveats of prognostic and predictive models. This book provides a comprehensive overview of such decision tools for radiation oncology, stratified by disease site, which will enable readers to make informed choices in daily clinical practice and to critically follow the future development of new tools in the field.>