This book presents an overview of the most important current developments in the pre-analytical handling of tissue. It addresses in particular potential ways to improve the situation whereby methods employed in the pre-analytical phase - the period from surgical removal of tissue to the start of pathological processing - have remained essentially unchanged for decades with only modest standardization. It is examined how the pre-analytical period can be optimized, resulting not only in an increase in diagnostic quality but also in a reduction in processing time and costs. Among the key topics...

From its introduction, oncological chemotherapy has been encumbered by its poor selectivity because most antiproliferative drugs are toxic not only to tumor cells but also to important populations of the body's non-neoplastic cells. The resultant problems with unwanted side effects are compounded by difficulties in predicting the desired effectivity of chemotherapy in individual patients.

This unsatisfactory situation has driven intensive research and development towards more specific and less toxic anticancer drugs over the last few decades. Several results of these efforts have...

This book presents an overview of the most important current developments in the pre-analytical handling of tissue. It addresses in particular potential ways to improve the situation whereby methods employed in the pre-analytical phase - the period from surgical removal of tissue to the start of pathological processing - have remained essentially unchanged for decades with only modest standardization. It is examined how the pre-analytical period can be optimized, resulting not only in an increase in diagnostic quality but also in a reduction in processing time and costs. Among the key topics...