Cancer Treatment Research

In recent years the field of cancer treatment has been burgeoning with ever expanding interest and commitments to research and therapy. Besides the large number of specialty journals and publications devoted to cancer related fields, nearly every general medical journal contains one or more articles related to cancer treatment and research. Another example of this expanding commitment and interest is reflected in the Internal Medicine subspecialty of Medical Oncology which, since its recognition as a subspecialty in 1973, has become the second most populated subspecialty, second only to cardiology. This burgeoning interest and commitment is obviously appropriate in view of the prevalence and incidence of the various cancers. These diseases constitute, after all, some of the most important and devastating problems of civilized man. It has been particularly gratifying to those involved with cancer research and therapy to observe the increasing interest in these diseases being translated into real improvements in patient care - improvements in length of survival, improvements in quality of survival, and improvements in palliative care. One need only look at Hodgkin's disease to observe the high rate of cure now routinely obtained whereas, in the past, many patients' disease continued to progress with fatal consequences. Some of these improvements came about through better staging techniques, and other improvements, as will be discussed in the chapter on Hodgkin's, came about from the application of early chemotherapy. Further research in Hodgkin's disease is still going on in order to improve results and decrease treatment related complications.

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1: New Approaches to the Diagnosis and Classification of the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.- Lymphomas Originating from B Lymphocytes.- Localization of T Cells in Nodular Lymphomas Nodes.- Well Differentiated Lymphomas.- Intermediate Differentiation.- Burkitt's Lymphomas.- Lymphomas of T-Cell Origin.- Large Cell Lymphomas.- Summary.- 2: Staging and Treatment of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.- Staging of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.- Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Studies.- Scans.- Other Tests.- Treatment of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.- Chemotherapy.- Conclusions and Recommendations.- 3: Current Issues in the Management of Patients with Hodgkin's Disease.- Combined Modality Approach to Hodgkin's Disease.- Complications of Treatment.- Thoughts for the Future.- 4: The Role of Radiation Therapy in the Management of Cancer of the Head and Neck.- Therapeutic Alternatives According to Site.- Equipment for Radiotherapy.- Factors Determining Response to Radiotherapy.- Local Failure of Treatment.- Combined Modality Treatment.- Summary.- 5: Systemic Chemotherapy in Advanced Head and Neck Cancer.- Single Agent Chemotherapy.- Combination Chemotherapy.- Other Areas of Investigation.- Conclusion.- 6: Carcinoma of the Thyroid.- Epidemiology.- Pathology.- Pathogenesis.- Treatment of Well Differentiated Thyroid Carcinomas.- Cytotoxic Drug Therapy.- Medullary Carcinoma of the Thyroid.- Summary.- 7: Computed Tomography in the Evaluation of Abdominal Malignancy.- Clinical Applications.- Summary.- 8: Management of Gastric and Pancreatic Cancer.- Gastric Carcinoma.- Cancer of the Pancreas.- 9: Chemotherapeutic Management of Bladder Cancer.- Indications for Chemotherapy.- Combination Chemotherapy for Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder.- Conclusions and Prospectus.- 10: Mammography.-Historical Perspective.- Radiation Dosage.- Indications for Mammography.- Mammographic Features of Breast Cancer.- Differential Diagnosis of Breast Cancer on Mammography.- Mammographic Needle Localization.- Specimen Radiography.- Summary.- 11: Breast Parenchymal Patterns on Mammography and Their Relationship to Carcinoma.- Classification.- Correlation of Classification and Cancer.- Prevalent Versus Incident Carcinomas.- Correlation of Parenchymal Patterns with Histopathology.- Conclusions.- 12: Initial Management of Carcinoma of the Breast with Radiation Therapy Instead of Mastectomy.- Radiologic Basis for Therapy.- Principles of Primary Radiation Therapy.- Results of Primary Radiotherapy.- Complications of Radiotherapy.- Relationship of Primary Radiation to Adjuvant Chemotherapy.- Conclusions.- 13: The Surgical Treatment of Primary Breast Cancer.- The Radical Mastectomy.- Treatment of Axillary Nodes.- Predictive Value of Axillary Lymph Nodes.- Lesser Surgical Procedures.- Multicentric Breast Cancer.- Investigative Surgical Approach.- Adjuvant Chemotherapy.- Conclusion.- 14: Clinical Applications of Cell Kinetics to Chemotherapy of Human Malignancy.- Cell Kinetics and Prognosis.- Chemotherapeutic Perturbation of Cell Population Kinetics.- Scheduling for Normal and Tumor Cell Response.- Summary.- 15: Adjuvant Therapy in Childhood Neoplasms An Overview.- Wilms' Tumor.- Rhabdomyosarcoma.- Osteosarcoma.- 16: An Overview of Adjuvant Therapy in Man.- The Management of Systemic Cancer.- Early Treatment vs Late Treatment.- How to Differentiate Systemic from Local Cancer.- Which Modality of Cancer Treatment is the Adjuvant?.- The Requirements for Inclusion of Chemotherapy in the.- Adjuvant Therapy Lessons from the Treatment of Acute Leukemia.- Treatment of thePatient Who Has No Evidence of Residual Disease.- Summary.- 17: An Overview of Unconventional (Fraudulent) Treatments of Cancer.- Nutrition and Cancer.- Nutritional Misinformation.- Why Are People So Vulnerable to Exploitation in the Field of Nutrition.- The Freedom of Choice Argument is a Consumer.- The Unscrupulous and the Misguided Physician.- The Testimonial, the Anecdote, and the Placebo Effect.- The Terminal Argument.- The Unconventional (Fraudulent) Treatments for Cancer.- Laetrile.- Why Do People Place Their Lives, or the Lives of Their Loved Ones on a Treatment Which is Generally Rejected as a Fraud by Almost Everyone Trained and Experienced in Cancer Research and Treatment?.- How Unconventional (Fraudulent) Treatments of Cancer are Successfully Promoted How Laypeople are Deceived Laetrile as an Example.- Who Makes, or Should Make, Scientific Policy?.- Contributing Authors.