Basics of Oncology

This book provides an easily understood and general overview of the basic medical, scientific, and clinical aspects of cancer. Causes, pathology, clinical features, diagnostic investigations, treatments, and outcomes are all carefully explained and discussed. This second edition includes a number of updates, especially concerning personalized medicine and regional chemotherapy. The reader will acquire a clear understanding of how and why people develop cancer, how the body reacts to cancer, what can be done to prevent the disease, and how the various cancers are best diagnosed and treated. Basics of Oncology will serve as a sound platform for the more detailed or specific studies that may be needed in different areas of practice. It will be invaluable for students of medicine, nurse oncologists, students of medical sciences, and other health professionals in all parts of the world.

Prof. Dr. med. Aigner is one of the world’s pioneers in the field of regional chemotherapy. He has been involved with regional chemotherapy for over 30 years and today he is considered as one of the world’s most experienced experts in this treatment method. Numerous lectures and guest operations in the USA, Japan, China, Israel, Egypt, Australia and a number of other countries, as well as over 200 professional publications, lectures and guest operations both in Germany and abroad attest to his medical commitment to RCT – regional chemotherapy.

Prof. Aigner completed his medical studies and his basic surgical training in cardiovascular surgery at the University of Erlangen. He obtained his habilitation doctorate in surgical oncology at the University of Giessen, with a research focus in techniques of regional chemotherapy. In 1981, Prof Aigner developed a technique for performing the first isolated liver perfusion in humans using a heart-lung machine, and over subsequent years a variety of additional surgical procedures and specialized catheters for isolated therapy of organs and parts of the body, including the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma.

From 1986 until 1991, Prof. Aigner was Chief Physician for Surgery at the Kreiskrankenhaus Trostberg am Chiemsee, and until 2001, he was the Chief Physician in the Department of Oncological Surgery at the Asklepios Paulinen Clinic in Wiesbaden. From 2002 until 2005 he led the Department of oncological surgery at the Medias Klinik GmbH in Ransbach-Baumbach. Since 2006 Prof. Aigner has been the Medical Director of the Medias Klinikum GmbH & Co KG, a private clinic for oncological surgery in Burghausen (Salzach).