U. Reinhold – författare

Over the past 50 years many in vitro and in vivo drug response assay systems have been developed to determine the potential - tivity of chemotherapy agents. The idea was to eliminate ineffective agents and unnecessary toxic treatment while selecting drugs active in vitro or in the mouse model that might increase the probability of response in the patient. None of these test models, however, achieved routine clinical application in the past. This might be at least in part - lated to large discrepancies that were described between the s- cess rate of the assay systems and the clinical benefit in cancer - tients. The heterogeneity of chemosensitivity that exists between different tumors as well as between individual tumor lesions may be one explanation for these findings. Furthermore, different assay end points such as proliferation, metabolism, and vitality were - veloped to evaluate the effects of cytostatic drugs on tumor cells, and these might be related to the differing results. However, knowledge about procedures for assay-assisted treatment selection has increased rapidly within the past few years, and several studies suggest that test-directed chemotherapy selection now may - prove response rates and survival in various types of tumors. The International Society for Chemosensitivity Testing in - cology (ISCO) was founded to promote, coordinate, and improve clinical and laboratory research in the field of predictive drug te- ing in human tumor cells.

Knowledge about diagnostic procedures in melanoma has in­ creased rapidly within the past few years. Single tumor cells have been identified in normal tissue such as sentinel lymph nodes, as well as in bone marrow, peripheral blood, and other bodily fluids and cells, by molecular technologies. The introduction of polymerase chain reaction-based methods can be regarded as a prototype of this dramatic development towards molecular approaches in new diagnostic procedures. This fact opens up the possibility of clinical use in patients and of influencing treatment strategies. Considerable discrepancies have been described, how­ ever, in the success rates of these new techniques for the detec­ tion of minimal residual disease in cancer patients. Despite fav­ orable results reported by different groups of investigators, it will take several years to define the clinical and pathophysiological relevance of new diagnostic procedures. The 1st International Symposium "Minimal Residual Disease in Melanoma: Biology, Detection and Clinical Relevance of Microme­ tastases", held in September 1999 in Homburg/Saar, Germany, fo­ cused on recent developments in this particular area of cancer re­ search. The purpose of the meeting was to stimulate discussion and exchange of new data and ideas by renowned international scientists. The aim of this volume is to summarize major topics of basic research and clinical investigations presented by invited experts in this fascinating but still. controversial field of melanoma re­ search.

Knowledge about diagnostic procedures in melanoma has in­ creased rapidly within the past few years. Single tumor cells have been identified in normal tissue such as sentinel lymph nodes, as well as in bone marrow, peripheral blood, and other bodily fluids and cells, by molecular technologies. The introduction of polymerase chain reaction-based methods can be regarded as a prototype of this dramatic development towards molecular approaches in new diagnostic procedures. This fact opens up the possibility of clinical use in patients and of influencing treatment strategies. Considerable discrepancies have been described, how­ ever, in the success rates of these new techniques for the detec­ tion of minimal residual disease in cancer patients. Despite fav­ orable results reported by different groups of investigators, it will take several years to define the clinical and pathophysiological relevance of new diagnostic procedures. The 1st International Symposium "Minimal Residual Disease in Melanoma: Biology, Detection and Clinical Relevance of Microme­ tastases", held in September 1999 in Homburg/Saar, Germany, fo­ cused on recent developments in this particular area of cancer re­ search. The purpose of the meeting was to stimulate discussion and exchange of new data and ideas by renowned international scientists. The aim of this volume is to summarize major topics of basic research and clinical investigations presented by invited experts in this fascinating but still. controversial field of melanoma re­ search.