During the last few decades, there has been a tremendous improvement in the treatment of cancer. There is evidence that this trend is continuing, based on the achievements re sulting from the combined efforts of clinicians and basic re search workers. This book is an example of such interaction and collaboration. It was prepared by authors representing both areas of work. Most of the work reported in this book is not merely theoretical, but has been experimentally successfully tested and sometimes applied clinically. This work has, however, not yet been generalized and practiced on a wide...

The fourth edition of the TNM Classification was published in 1987,1 and a revision in 1992.2 It was the result of efforts by all national TNM Committees towards a worldwide uniform classification. The classifica tion criteria are identical with the fourth edition of the Manual for 3 Staging of Cancer of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). Although the classification has found wide acceptance, some workers have pointed out that individual definitions and rules for staging are not sufficiently detailed. This can lead to inconsistent application of the clas sification. the antithesis...

It is a very special honour for me to be able to present this handbook of medical oncology, which under diverse headings and origins covers such a vast spectrum of experience. I be lieve the reader will be struck in particular by the impressive volume of information available, especially with regard to childhood tumours, which represent, today, an immense "lab oratory of hope." It is in this very field that we oncologists have been able to obtain the most consoling results in recent years. I feel sure that all those who read these chapters will find that their oncological competence is...

The History of the TNM System The TNM System for the c1assification of malignant tumours was developed by Pierre Denoix (France) between the years 1943 1 and 1952. In 1950 the UICC appointed a Committee on Thmour Nomen clature and Statistics and adopted, as a basis for its work on clini cal stage c1assification, the general definitions of local extension of malignant tumours suggested by the World Health Organiza tion (WHO) Sub-Committee on The Registration of Cases of 2 Cancer as weIl as their Statistical Presentation. In 1953 the Committee held a joint meeting with the Interna tional...

While our knowledge about cancer is proliferating rapidly, our principles of cancer medicine for individual patients and for populations are evolving only gradually. Our fundamental understanding of cancer causes and deve lopment is incomplete, and our treatments are nonspecific and less often curative than we would like. Nevertheless, worldwide, our major challenge remains to apply to our populations all that we know about cancer. To meet this challenge, doctors everywhere need a broad view and under standing of cancer causes and control. This book is intended for doctors-in-training and...

Kenntnisse und Wissen uber die Krebskrankheiten haben in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auf der ganzen Welt betracht lich zugenommen. Die Verbesserung des Lebensstandards, des 6ffentlichen Gesundheitswesens und der medizinischen Diagnostik hat in den meisten Landern die Bedeutung neo plastischer Erkrankungen als Ursache von Morbiditat und Mortalitat starker in den Vordergrund treten lassen und zu einer Zunahme der relativen Haufigkeit dieser Krankheiten gefuhrt. Damit stiegen aber auch die Erwartungen an die Medizin, sich mehr mit den Krebserkrankungen auseinander zusetzen und die...

The outstanding success of the First Edition and the expansion of our knowledge about cancer over the 5 years since its publication have led to the decision to publish a Second Edition which has been fully revised, rewritten and enlarged by the addition of several sections. The First Edition was translated into Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Serbo-Croat and it is expected that additional translations (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. ) will make this Second Edition a truly international basic cancer Manual. The Revision Committee is convinced that all students and general physicians...

The continuing success of the VICC's Manual of Clinical Oncology and the continuing refinement of our educational objectives in cancer designed for graduating medical students and young practitioners, cou pled with significant additional knowledge in the cancer field have allIed to the decision to publish a Fourth Edition. The collaboration of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Orga nization (PAHO) in our international and regional conferences in cancer education and the development of courses using the Manual as a basic resource have aided further definition of...

In 1966, following the Ninth International Cancer Congress in Tokyo, the Commission on Epidemiology and Prevention of the International Union against Cancer formed a new Committee on Cancer Incidence. This Committee met in Lausanne in May 1968 and decided that the monograph on Cancer Incidence in Five Continents, which had been published by the UICC tw years previously, had been so useful that a second volume should be published as soon as a suf ficient amount of new material could be collected. The Committee delegated the responsibility for the production of this volume to the Editors of the...