The key aim of the proposed chapter is to provide readers a brief description for the most important parts of the field of circulating tumor cells (CTCs): the core techniques, including negative and positive selection-based CTC isolation, and the differences between them. Most importantly, we will also review the clinical applications and important findings in clinical trials. The evidence-based review will not only help clinicians use CTCs to predict recurrence and foresee the disease-related outcomes but also to inspire the researchers in this field to conduct further investigations.

This text provides comprehensive and timely coverage of the current knowledge of cancer-associated thrombosis, its pathogenesis, clinical features, prevention, and therapy. It specifically addresses the relationship between hemostatic systems and cancer, thus providing a unique and much needed focus. All of the contributors are acknowledged specialists in their fields and have experience conducting large clinical trials in oncology and thrombosis. Their discussions cover all aspects of the topic, from long-term complications to cancer surgery. It will be of interest to general practitioners, internists, oncologists, hematologists, and all physicians involved in the management of cancer patients.

In this book, leaders in the field explore our current understanding of thrombosis and hemostasis in cancer and address key questions on the subject. Among the topics discussed are the mechanisms that cancers use to activate the coagulation system, and those by means of which an activated coagulation system can lead to more aggressive cancer growth. Clinical chapters examine the role of thrombosis prophylaxis and treatment, central line-associated thrombosis, and cancer-associated hemorrhage. Subsequent chapters deal with the management of chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia, anticoagulation in the presence of brain metastases, and other unique challenges in the interaction of thrombosis and hemostasis in cancer. It has been 150 years since Armand Trousseau first described the well-known association between cancer and an increased risk of thrombosis, which may be considered the first paraneoplastic syndrome ever identified. More recently, numerous studies have indicated that activation of the coagulation system by cancer not only increases the likelihood of thrombosis, but is also associated with a more aggressive cancer phenotype. By familiarizing readers with the latest developments in this complex and challenging field, the book offers a valuable resource for scientists and clinicians alike.

The past twenty years have witnessed significant advances in the treatment of cancer by surgery and radiation therapy. Gains with cytotoxic chemotherapy have been much more modest. Of the approximately 900,000 newly diagnosed cases of cancer each year, 50010 result in death of the patient. The primary cause of these deaths is metastasis. Although the term metastasis was first coined by Recamier in 1829, only in the past ten years have there been intensive scientific investigations into the mechanisms by which tumor cells metastasize. What has emerged is a complex process of host-tumor cell interactions which has been termed the metastatic cascade. Due to the complexity of the metastatic process, the study of metastasis is multifaceted and involves elements of such areas as differentiation, en zymology, genetics, hematology, immunology, membrane biochemistry and molecular biology. The major objectives of this book were to present the most recent advances in our understanding of how tumor cells metastasize to secondary sites by the leading experts in the biology of tumor invasion and metastasis. We hope that this book will lead to new concepts for the treatment of subclinical metastatic cancer. The chapters in this book address both the basic science of metastasis and potential clinical therapies directed toward interruption of the metastatic cascade or toward eradication of subclinical metastases. Many relevant topics have been omitted due to space considerations and thus the topics included reflect the prej udices of the editors.

This book covers important biological, immunological, and molecular information essential for understanding the rationale and results of experiments and clinical observations on cell-cell and cell substrate adhesion; hydrolytic activities, cell motility; immunological and other host elements of the host-tumor ecosystem (at different sites of the metastic process); genetic and epigenetic elements of the acquisition and the expression of invasive phenotypes. 38 tables and 60 computer-drawn figures provide comprehensive overviews, and a methodological chapter emphasizing the differences and similarities between assays and their relevance for natural situations has also been included. Clinical and experimental cancer researchers, as well as as post-graduate students interested in cancer research, will find this book to be an indispensable reference resource.

First Published in 1987: The book is to give insight into the multisided relationship of hemostatic systems and malignancies and to help biomedical scientists and practicing clinicians obtain a better understanding of cancer research.