Main description:

Lung cancer is a disease with pandemic public health implications as it is now the leading cause of cancer mortality throughout the world. This book results from two recent International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Workshops on lung cancer prevention. It strikes a balance between considering public health approaches to tobacco control and population-based screening, advances in clinical evaluation of chemoprevention approaches, and the biology of lung carcinogenesis. Indeed, while the science of smoking cessation is evolving as new pharmacological tools are moving into clinical evaluation, the current impact of molecular diagnostics is profound. The rapidly-evolving diagnostic technologies are revolutionizing basic scientific investigation of cancer, and this trend is expected to soon spill over into the clinical practice of medicine. The evolution of economical diagnostic platforms to allow for direct bronchial epithelial evaluation in high-risk populations promises to improve the diagnostic lead-time for this disease. The hope is that enough progress will occur to permit lung cancer detection in advance of clinical cancer so that the disease can be addressed early on, while it is still confined to the site of origin. Chemoprevention, which is designed to intervene in the early phase of carcinogenesis prior to any subjective clinical manifestation of a cancer, is also generating greater research interest. Moreover, the benefit of aerosolized administration of chemoprevention agents over conventional oral administration has strong appeal and may result in the reduction of the incidence of cancer when combined with new diagnostic technologies.

Contents:

1. Prevention and Early Detection of Lung Cancer - Clinical Aspects.- 2. Smoking Prevention and Cessation.- 3. Clinical Pharmacology of Vitamin A and Retinoids.- 4. Early Lung Cancer Detection.- 5. Molecular Abnormalities in the Sequential Development of Lung Carcinoma.- 6. Application of In Situ PCR and In Situ Hybridization to the Characterization of Lung Cancers.- 7. Tumor Stroma Formation in Lung Cancer.- 8. Tumor Angiogenesis: Basis for New Prognostic Factors and New Anticancer Therapies.- 9. Cell Cycle Regulators and Mechanisms of Growth Control Evasion in Lung Cancer.- 10. Molecular Genetics of Lung Cancer.- 11. Neuropeptides, Signal Transduction and Small Cell Lung Cancer.- 12. In Vitro Analysis of Bombesin/Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Receptor (bb2) Ligand Binding and G-Protein Coupling.- 13. DNA Methylation Changes in Lung Cancer.- 14. K-ras Mutations as Molecular Markers of Lung Cancer.- 15. Sheep Lung Adenomatosis: A Model of Virally Induced Lung Cancer.- 16. Retinoic Acid Receptor ss: An Exploration of its Role in Lung Cancer Suppression and its Potential in Cancer Prevention.- 17. Cytochrome P450 Polymorphisms: Risk Factors for Lung Cancer?.- 18. Glutathione S-Transferases and Lung Cancer Risk.- 19. The p53 Tumor Suppressor Gene in Lung Cancer: From Molecular to Serological Diagnosis.- 20. Endoscopic Localization of Preneoplastic Lung Lesions.- 21. Antigen Retrieval Improves hnRNP A2/B1 Immunohisto-chemical Localization in Premalignant Lesions of the Lung.- 22. Molecular Pathological Mechanisms in NSCLC and the Assessment of Individuals with a High Risk of Developing Lung Cancer.- 23. Chemoprevention of Lung Cancer.- 24. Regional Delivery of Retinoids: A New Approach to Early Lung Cancer Intervention.- 25. Natural Inhibitors of Carcinogenesis.- 26. Gene Delivery to Airways.- 27. Lung Cancer Prevention: The Point of View of a Public Health Epidemiologist.- 28. Biomarkers as Intermediate Endpoints in Chemoprevention Trials: Biological Basis of Lung Cancer Prevention.- 29. Biological Tools for Mass Screening.- 30. Optimization of the Use of Biological Samples for the Prospective Evaluation of Preneoplastic Lesions.