Wolfgang Hiddemann – författare

This book provides an overview of the key developments in both acute lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia with a comprehensive guide to the epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, clinical manifestations, classification, diagnosis, and staging as well as the most recent developments in the therapeutic landscape for acute leukemia.

Chromosome abnormalities of cancer cells have been recognized for a long time, and have generally proven to be a highly specific marker ofmalignancy. The contri- butions collected in this book, "Tumor Aneuploidy", cover several major aspects of present knowledge conceming the occurrence and clinical significance of chromo- some abnormalities as delineated by karyotype analyses or measurements of the cellular DNA content. Certain non-random clonal chromosome losses, deletions and translocations ap- pear to represent primary genetic lesions of malignancies and reflect their clonal origin. Secondary intraneoplastic genetic evolution is suggested by major clonal ab- normalities of chromosome number and cellular DNA content. Both types of ge- netic changes have been reaching great relevance in cancer medicine, today. Although the Philadelphia chromosome was first discovered in chronic myelo- cytic leukemia (CML), by Nowell and Hungerford in 1960, new banding techniques developed in the 1970's were needed to identity this abnormality as a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 (t(9; 22)).Soon thereafter, further non-random translocations were detected and attributed to special diseases like t(8; 21) and t(15; 17) to acute myeloid leukemias (AML) and t(9; 22), t(4; 11), t(8; 14) to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Acute leukemia a quite homogenous disease failed to break through the sound barriere of when untreated reveals a substantial hetero­ unsatisfactory cure rates even in special sub­ geneity in its response to therapy. While cure groups. While new protocols including more is achieved in a certain proportion of pa­ effective supportive care show some increase tients other cases prove to be highly resis­ in the initial response rates and certain im­ tant. The curability is superior in acute provements in the long-term results, no ben­ lymphoblastic (ALL) than in acute myeloid eficial effect on the relapse rate during the (AML) leukemia and - within both type- first 1 Y2 years emerged from any of these higher in children as compared to adults. regimens. Thus, high chances for cure are The two age groups and cell types can be presently restricted to children with ALL further subdivided into prognostic groups and to lesser proportions children with by special diagnostic features. Thus, in AML and adults with ALL and AML.

The 6th volume of the book series Acute Leukemias presents both therapeutic and prognostic updates of the most recent results of major multicenter clinical trials. Additional chapters report on new trends in leucemia cell biology, the monitoring of minimal residual disease and secondary leucemias as well as new antileucemic drugs, antimicrobial strategies and the use of cytocines. Acute Leukemias VI provides a new update on the rapid progress being made internationally concerning leucemic diseases.