Practical Medical Oncology Textbook

This textbook combines essential information on clinical cancer medicine with a guide to the latest advances in molecular oncology and tumor biology. Providing a systematic overview of all types of solid tumors, including epidemiology and cancer prevention, genetic aspects of hereditary cancers, differential diagnosis, typical signs and symptoms, diagnostic strategies and staging, and treatment modalities, it also discusses new and innovative cancer treatments, particularly targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Expert commentaries at the end of each chapter highlight key points, offer insights, suggest further reading and discuss clinical application using case descriptions. This textbook is an invaluable, practice-oriented tool for medical students just beginning their clinical oncology studies, as well as for medical oncology residents and young professionals.

Antonio Russo is Full Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Palermo (Italy).    He is  head of the Medical Oncology Unit and of the Reference Center of Rare and Heredo-familial Solid Tumors,  Palermo (Italy). In addition, he is Coordinator of the PhD in Oncology at the University of Palermo  and Adjunct Full Professor at Temple University’s, Philadelphia (USA). He is a medical oncologist and he focuses on translational oncology, hereditary, rare, lung, gastrointestinal and ovarian cancers. Previously he was Director of the Specialization School in Medical Oncology, University of Palermo. He was co-chair of the “CRCP53 International Collaborative Study” project and  also member of the international RASCAL II project group. He is an active member of the main scientific oncological  groups as ASCO, ESMO, ISBL and  AIOM, of which he is a member of the national board of councillors. He was an expert member of INSERM (France), of the Scientific Committee INCA (France) and of the NWCRF (UK). Recently, he has been the recipient of numerous professional accolades, including a Visiting Professor and an Honorary Professor membership for the Peruvian Ricardo Palma University. In 2019 he also received the prestigious NIAF Award  for Ethics and creativity in Medical research in Washington (USA). He is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications listed on Medline-PubMed including Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, Annals of Oncology, Oncoimmunology, Lancet Oncology, Oncologist, Cell Stem Cell. He is actually a member of the Editorial board of the high-indexed “Cancers” journal and guest editor for “Cancers” and “Frontiers in Oncology”. Lastly, he is Editor-in-Chief of several academic textbooks in oncology for Springer Nature. 

Marc Peeters is a Professor of Oncology at Antwerp University, Belgium. He is head of the oncology department at Antwerp University Hospital and coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Oncology Center Antwerp. He is also chairman of the College of Oncology. Previously, he was Coordinator of the Digestive Oncology Unit at the University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium. He completed his medical studies at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium. He underwent additional training in Oncology and Digestive Oncology at the UZ Gasthuisberg, the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, Paris, the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Peeters is board member of the Flemish Society of Gastroenterology, chair of the Belgian Group of Digestive Oncology and a member of the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology, the European Society of Medical Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the gastrointestinal group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. Within EORTC, he is co-chair of the metastatic colorectal task force. His research interests have included the identification of molecular markers and therapy modulation in digestive tumors. He has been involved in many clinical studies on therapeutic agents for gastrointestinal tumors, published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals and was author of several chapters in oncology books.

Lorena Incorvaia is Assistant Professor at the University Medical School of Palermo (Italy). She is a medical oncologist, PhD in “Cellular, Clinical and Molecular Oncopathology” from the University of Palermo. Since 2018 is “Guest Lecturer” at the “Department of Molecular Imaging, Pathology, Radiotherapy and Oncology (MIPRO), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). She is in the national board of Italian Society of Medical Oncology (AIOM), section young oncologist, from 2019. Since April 2020 she is member of the PhD in Experimental Oncology and Surgery at University of Palermo, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Oral Sciences, and member of the scientific Italian commission of the 2020 European Horizon Program. She is author of numerous position papers, guidelines and clinical recommendations in the AIOM Group, she is author of several chapters and monographs in oncology books and is actually Guest Editor of the “Cancers” journal. She is co-investigator in several national and international clinical trials and Scientific Director of national and international research projects. She works in collaboration with the “Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille” (CRCM), INSERM-Marseille, France and is actively involved in research studies of immunoncology, molecular biology and cancer genetics, focused on molecular mechanisms of targeted therapy and immunotherapy resistance, identification of novel molecules involved in anti-tumor immune response and immunomodulatory mechanism of cancer evolution. Her activity in cancer research is showed by several papers published in international, peer-reviewed, high-indexed journals.

Christian Rolfo is Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology and Director of Early Clinical Trials at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC), in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He is Professor of Medicine at the Division of Oncology at Maryland University, School of Medicine. In addition, he is Professor of Oncology at Antwerp University in the Center for Oncological Research (CORE) in Antwerp, Belgium. He also serves as Visiting Professor in Oncology and as External Expert in PhD Degrees in Clinical Oncology Research at the Medicine and Surgery School, University of Palermo, Italy. He is actively working on drug development and Lung cancer & Mesothelioma treatment. His research is focused in molecular oncology and Immunotherapy and in a pan-tumoral approach, using new techniques in liquid biopsies, specifically in exosome isolation and circulatingfree tumour DNA. Prof. Rolfo served as an expert member of the Commission for Medicinal Products for Human Use and First in Human Drugs Commission at the Federal Agency of Health and Medicinal Products from Belgium and external expert for the European Agency of Medicine (EMA). He is member of the educational committee at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), served on the membership committee of ESMO, is the current vice-president of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy (ISLB) and member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Clinical Research (AACR) the Oncology Latin-American Association (OLA). He is Editor in Chief of Critical Review in Oncology Hematology; he has been a speaker at national and international forums and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals.