Radiation therapy forms an integral part of the care of 50% to 60% of cancer patients in the United States. It plays a key role in the multidisciplinary curative treatment of many patients with head and neck, thoracic, genitourinary, gynecologic,…
Introduction As our understanding of cancer has grown, medical oncology has evolved as a subspecialty of internal medicine since the 1960s. Initially, few treatments beyond surgery and a handful of toxic chemotherapy agents were available to cancer patients. Medical oncologists…
Introduction Surgery remains a pillar of multimodality therapy for long-term survival in virtually all patients with solid tumors. For surgery to be effective, however, patients must be selected properly so that nontherapeutic surgery is avoided. In the current era of…
Introduction Multidisciplinary care teams are those that are composed of members from multiple different medical specialties working together to achieve the highest quality of care for the patient. Such teams are particularly needed in complex environments such as cancer hospitals.…
Telemedicine refers to the use of telecommunication technologies to deliver healthcare services at a distance. The concept of telehealth refers to the broader scope of healthcare services, including nonclinical services. In contrast, telemedicine, a subset of telehealth, refers to the…
Introduction While lung cancer is the third most common cancer in males and females (behind breast and prostate cancer), it is the leading cause of cancer related death in the United States. , The 2-year survival rate ranges from 15%…
Introduction For decades, the standard of care for lung cancer, especially advanced disease, has been chemotherapy. However, the identification of specific genetic mutations and molecular mechanisms by which cancerous cells evade T cell-mediated cytotoxic damage has facilitated the development of…
Surgical Techniques Tumor resection is the mainstay treatment of early stages of lung cancer (stage I, II, and some stage III). The first total pneumonectomy reported in the United States was performed in the 1940s by Dr. Evarts Graham, in…
Introduction There is a wide variety of neuromuscular diseases that impact patients with lung cancer and patients undergoing treatment for lung cancer. Neuropathy is a disease of peripheral nerves, with multiple primary, secondary, and tertiary consequences that can be debilitating…
Introduction Over the past few decades, advances in cancer treatments have significantly extended survival. With an increase in the number of cancer survivors, there has been a greater appreciation for potential adverse side effects of cancer treatments. Cognitive functioning in…