Breast Cancer, a Heterogeneous Disease Entity

The volume raises attention to the need of a completely new approach to breast cancer based on the knowledge collected on early breast cancer in the past two decades. The chapters are contributed by experts of all the fields participating in the clinical research and care of breast cancer. The practical importance of such a book is underlined by the increasing number of breast cancer cases, and also the increasing proportion of early stage-cases. The ultimate goal of the book is to point to the heterogeneous nature of the disease which is more striking and has more importance in care at the very early stages than at the more advanced stages. The book recommends the utilization of all the information provided by multimodality imaging and special pathological methods, a new classification system and therapeutic guidelines since early breast cancers should not be treated based on experience obtained with palpable tumors. No similar book has been yet released to the market. The book is written for all the members of the team participating in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer (radiologists, pathologists, surgeons, clinical and radiation oncologists), but may be useful for medical students and residents too. The chapters are illustrated with didactic pictures, and special emphasis is given to provide a peep into the practice of the special procedures for the careful examination and individualized therapy of each case.

Chapter 1. A new approach to early breast cancer (Tibor Tot and Zsuzsanna Kahán). - Chapter 2. Screening of breast cancer (Per Skaane). - Chapter 3. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in screening high-risk patients and in detecting and diagnosing early breast cancer (Gábor Forrai). - Chapter 4. Large-format histology, a prerequisite for adequate assessment of early breast carcinomas (Tibor Tot). - Chapter 5. The molecular evolution of breast cancer precursors and risk indicators (Paul M Wilkerson, Konstantin J Dedes, Maria A Lopez-Garcia, Felipe C Geyer and Jorge S Reis-Filho. -
Chapter 6.
Immunohistochemistry and molecular biology of breast cancers; Old and new prognostic factors (Konstantin J. Dedes, Paul Wilkerson and Jorge S. Reis-Filho). -
Chapter 7. Sentinel node biopsy and nodal staging (Gábor Cserni). - Chapter 8. Tailored surgery: Limited breast and lymph node surgery (György Lázár). - Chapter 9. Radiotherapy: A new approach to risk-adapted selective radiotherapy (Csaba Polgár). -
Chapter 10. The risks of radiotherapy and how to avoid them (Zsuzsanna Kahán, Katalin Hideghéty and Zoltán Varga). - Chapter 11. Systemic adjuvant therapy for Stage I breast cancer (Lajos Pusztai and Catherine M. Kelly). -
Chapter 12. Systemic therapy: Selection of patients. Endocrine therapy (Zsuzsanna Kahán).