Gastrointestinal Cancers: Prevention, Detection & Treatment -- Volume 1

Gastrointestinal cancer is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer worldwide. Gastrointestinal cancer is the cancer of different organs within the digestive system, including the esophagus, stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. The common cause of gastrointestinal cancer may be a microbial infection, smoking, alcohol consumption, highly fatty foods, age, race, genetic pattern and geographical location. Gastrointestinal cancer accounts more than 20 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer cases in the United States, where gastric cancer is the fourth-most-common type of cancer and the second-highest cause of cancer deaths. Pancreatic cancer is also a very lethal cancer, and its symptoms appear when the cancer is in its advanced stages. Other gastrointestinal cancers including liver (hepatic), gallbladder, and colorectal cancer; these types of cancer have received considerable attention due to their rising incidences in last few decades. Some other gastrointestinal cancers are not very common and usually associated with cancer of respective organs such as esophageal cancer, cholangiocarcinoma or bile duct cancer, carcinoid tumor, pancreatic islet cell cancer, and duodenal cancer. This book provides a summary of the past, present and future of gastrointestinal cancer history. In this book, numerous international experts of gastrointestinal cancer are discussed, where authors have provided a complete view of the most common and widely used diagnostic methods. Additionally, the authors also explain the unusual techniques and the most innovative complementary methods not yet used in clinical practice. Contributors have also described the latest findings and the various clinical manifestations related to gastrointestinal cancer prevention and treatment. It covers numerous discoveries and inventions in the field of gastrointestinal cancer detection and analysis. About the Author Dr Amit Kumar Tyagi received his PhD degree in Applied Microbiology from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India where he studied the antimicrobial potential of different phytochemicals against food spoiling and disease causing microorganisms in in-vivo and in-vitro food models. During his PhD, he was awarded for European grant Erasmus Mundus Corporation Window' for doing part of his thesis work in University of Bologna, Italy. His work at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center revealed that TNF exhibit pro-inflammatory activities and may mediate carcinogenesis through the activation of a transcription factor NF-κB. The gene products regulated by NF-κB have now been linked to cellular transformation, tumor cell survival, proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, metastasis, chemoresistance, and radioresistance. Mostly carcinogens, tumor promoters, growth factors, inflammatory agents, chemotherapeutic agents, radiation, viruses, bacteria, cigarette smoke, alcohol and other life style factors activate NF-κB and another transcription factor STAT3. Dr Tyagi's research group is working on safe and multi-targeting chemopreventive agents derived from natural resources suppress NF-κB and STAT3 pathway and suppress tumorigenesis. Dr Sahdeo Prasad obtained his Ph.D. (Biotechnology), CSJM University, Kanpur, India in joint collaboration with Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR), Lucknow, India. During doctoral research program, he extensively worked on signal transduction pathways in both in vivo and in vitro tumor models. Before joining his PhD program, Dr Prasad received National Eligibility Test (CSIR - UGC-NET), Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and Indian Council of Medical Research Junior Research Fellowship award (ICMR-JRF) by Govt. of India. After PhD, he joined as Post - Doctoral Fellow in Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA. His expertise is in the area of molecular biology with par