EUROPEAN ONCOLOGY & HAEMATOLOGY – VOLUME 7 ISSUE 3 – AUTUMN 2011

In ‘Supportive Oncology’, Catherine Terret and Jean-Pierre Droz discuss the unmet disease for both standardisation and co-ordination of quality-of-life (QoL) evaluation tools in genito-urinary cancers. They believe that the availability of good QoL tools would enable an increase in the efficiency of decision-making in these cancers where comparisons between the side of effects of the […]

Streamlining Workflow Efficiencies An oncology information system (OIS) (see Figure 1) can help clinicians to verify that they are treating the right patient, the right site and with the right procedure, giving patients more confidence in their care. Patient identification (ID) matching, validity checks, multi-level approvals, image registration and review alerts, timeouts and quality checklists […]

The quality of life (QOL) of the sick is a very complex concept. Different definitions have been proposed: “Quality of life is the subjective evaluation of life as a whole”;1 and “Quality of life refers to patients’ appraisal of and satisfaction with their current level of functioning compared to what they perceived to be possible […]

The term lung cancer refers to carcinomas that originate from the respiratory epithelium. Approximately 85 % of all lung cancers are classified as non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 10 % are small cell lung cancer and other histological variants account for about 5 %.1 Lung cancer represents the second most common type of cancer in both […]

Intraspinal (leptomeningeal or intramedullary) metastases from primary intracranial gliomas have been well documented in several clinical and pathological series.1–5 Post-mortem and cytological incidence of meningeal and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dissemination of up to 40 % has been demonstrated in these studies. Symptomatic intraspinal metastases in patients with primary intracerebral gliomas occur rarely however – roughly […]

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant neoplasm of bone in children and adolescents. It is characterised by the proliferation of malignant mesenchymal cells that are capable of producing osteoid or immature bone.1 About 800 new cases of osteosarcoma are diagnosed per year in the US. Half of these cases occur in people under the […]

This article represents a short, personal selection of emerging issues in gynaecological oncology and, consequently, should not be considered a comprehensive overview of this complex issue. Lymphadenectomy for Endometrial Cancer Based on evidence that pelvic lymphadenectomy does not have any therapeutic benefit in the treatment of endometrial cancer, Todo et al. recently published an interesting […]

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological malignancy. The five-year survival rate is excellent: 84.3 % in Spain for all stages with complete treatment.1 The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage is the independent criterion that best indicates the prognosis of this tumour. In the last FIGO Annual Report the five-year survival rate […]

Carcinoid tumours are rare, malignant neuroendocrine neoplasms first described in 1888 in the ileum1 and called ‘Karzinoide’ by Oberndorfer in 1907.2 Neuroendocrine cells were originally called clear cells and later amine precursor uptake and decarboxylation (APUD) system cells.3 The term neuroendocrine was introduced with the finding that these cells are capable of producing bioactive amines […]

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal haematopoietic stem cell disorders that impair normal haematopoiesis, resulting in a variable number of cytopenias and a potential to evolve into acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).1 With a median age at diagnosis around 70 years, MDS typically affects the elderly.1,2 Hence, there is much morbidity and mortality […]

Although Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) is considered one of the most curable human cancers, the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory disease, especially those who relapse after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), remains challenging.1,2 Furthermore, because the median age of patients is in the mid-30s, the impact of early mortality on the number of years […]

Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) has evolved from an experimental therapy to an elective treatment for many haematological and non-haematological diseases. HSCT is strongly related to the availability of a histocompatible donor – around 25 % among family members. The establishment of national registries of haematopoietic stem cell donors and cord blood units joined […]

Phenotypic diversity within the β-thalassaemia syndromes has traditionally received considerable interest, with several molecular and environmental modifiers of disease severity so far described.1 Patients with transfusion-dependent β-thalassaemia major (TM) suffer the most severe form and show the highest mortality rates.1 Nevertheless, the introduction of safe transfusion practices and effective iron chelation therapy continues to improve […]