Gastrointestinal Cancers : Prevention, Detection and Treatment, Volume 2

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer is well known cancer of digestive system that includes cancer of esophagus, gallbladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. The incidence of GI cancer is higher in developed countries than developing counties. In developed countries such as United States, GI cancer accounts to 20 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer cases. In the developing countries inside Asia the burden of GI cancer is increasing because of aging, growth of the population and the risk factors including smoking, obesity, changing lifestyle and high prevalence of H pylori, HBV and HCV. In most developing countries, cancer control programs or early detection and treatment services are limited despite this increase.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth commonest cause of cancer-related mortality across the world. This cancer is the fifth-most-common cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the seventh most common cancer in Europe. The majority of cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages, making curative therapy impossible and leading to poor prognosis and incidence equaling mortality. It has been estimated that rates of pancreatic cancer have been increasing slightly over the past decade. Pancreatic cancer is a very lethal and aggressive cancer and diagnosis is delayed, as the symptoms appear when the cancer is in advanced stage.

Liver cancer (also called hepatic cancer) is a cancer that originates in the hepatic cells, also known as primary liver cancer. Some cancers arise in other part of body and metastasize in the liver called secondary or metastatic liver cancer. The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma, which begins in the liver cell (hepatocyte). Primary liver cancer accounts for about 2% of cancers in the USA, but up to half of all cancers in some developing countries due to the prevalence of infections specifically by hepatitis virus.

On the basis of various incidences of different gastrointestinal cancer motivates us to compile a book related to gastrointestinal cancers and focus on the almost all type of prevention, detection and treatment methods from the world experts. This book is the culmination of the efforts of several researchers, junior and senior clinicians as well scientists as per their field of expertise across the world. In this book authors focused on different gastrointestinal cancers and describe the various methods for prevention, detection and treatment. The book has enormous scope and will benefit multiple audience including researchers, clinicians, patients, academicians, industrialists, and students.