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Edited by Hagop M. Kantarjian, Robert A. Wolff, and Charles A. Koller, 1147 pp, $195.
New York, NY, McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing, 2006.
ISBN-13 978-0-07-141499-9.

JAMA. 2007;297:748-749.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Medical oncology is a rapidly changing subspecialty. Clinical trial results and new therapies change approaches to treatment literally overnight. Therapy with broadly toxic agents has evolved into targeted genetic and enzymatic approaches to destroying or controlling cancer cells. Surgical tumor removal has become more effective. Radiation has become more precise in targeting both static and dynamic tumor locations. Medical imaging has improved, with the development of stronger magnets for magnetic resonance imaging and enhanced-resolution positron emission tomography to spot malignancies that would be undetectable with computed tomography. However, limitations of diagnosis and therapy continue to be major barriers to cure.

Advances in flow cytometry, immunohistochemical staining, and nucleic acid genetic analysis (eg, fluorescence in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction) all provide new information for the practice of medical oncology. But, while solving some problems, the technologies create others. When is the cancer truly in remission? When can therapy be stopped? . . . [Full Text of this Article]

James R. Egner, MD, Reviewer
Carle Cancer Center
Urbana, Ill
james.egner@carle.com

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