EUROPEAN ONCOLOGY & HAEMATOLOGY – VOLUME 7 ISSUE 4 – WINTER 2011

Welcome to this edition of European Oncology & Haematology. Following the successful previous editions, this issue features salient and informative topics reflecting the diversity of challenges facing oncologists, healthcare professionals and patients. A series of articles that discuss and review many important issues relevant to oncologists and physicians throughout Europe are included in this issue.

Cancer is characterised by uncontrolled and unlimited multiplication of cells outpacing the natural rate of cell death (apoptosis).1 The treatment of cancer involves cytotoxic or targeted therapeutics that kill the cancer cells, stop their multiplication, inhibit metastasis or break tolerance against cancer cells by modulating T-regulatory cells or antigen-presenting/T-cell recognition via vaccination (see Figure 1).

Primary liver cancer represents about 6 % of all new cancer cases worldwide and is the third leading cause of cancer-related death after lung and gastric cancers.1 Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 85–90 % of all primary liver malignancies and is the most common primary liver malignancy in adults.2 While, in Western Europe and North […]

Gastroenterology – A Speciality in Progress

The introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing into cervical screening programmes seems to be inevitable. However, HPV is a highly prevalent virus that is mainly transient. Therefore, it is important to understand HPV dynamics and to identify women at high risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or cervical carcinoma to avoid overtreatment. Persistent HPV infection […]

Since the introduction of prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening, prostate cancer has become the most common male malignancy.1 To reduce overtreatment and functional morbidity associated with radical therapies, new approaches have been proposed, such as active surveillance and focal therapy. As we are dealing with multifocal tumours, validation and large acceptance of these modalities hinges […]

While much of the recent focus on prostate cancer relates to the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of this disease, each year almost 100,000 men in Europe and more than 30,000 men in the US still die of advanced prostate cancer, making it the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths.1 Androgen deprivation therapy is the most […]

Haemophilia B is an X-linked recessive coagulation disorder with an estimated incidence of 1 in 60,000 people.1,2 It is characterised by repeated bleeding, particularly into the joints and muscles, which can initiate a cascade of events leading to destruction of the synovium due to synovitis, breakdown of cartilage, development of fibrosis and, eventually, severe and […]

Neutropenic sepsis is a serious and potentially life-threatening complication of cancer chemotherapy. It is the leading cause of infectious complications in patients receiving chemotherapy, accounting for most chemotherapy-associated morbidity and mortality, and compromising treatment outcomes by causing dose reductions and treatment delays. Frequent use of dose-intense and dose-dense chemotherapy, especially in the older population, has […]

Infections remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients, mainly those affected by haematological malignancies and those undergoing stem cell transplant (SCT).1–3 With the improvement of cancer care in the past decades, patients live longer, and immunosuppression from the underlying disease and from more intensive and prolonged treatments renders more and more […]