The Gonzalez Best Case Series Presentation to the NCI: 25 Cases, 25 Years Later.

No Abstract Available.

Pathfinders in oncology from the end of the 19th century to the first description of Ewing sarcoma.

During the period 1884 to 1922, the only option in cases of operable cancers was radical surgery, and only a minority of patients were cured. Sporadic attempts were made to treat inoperable cancer patients with bacterial toxins; however, with the discovery of x-ray and radium, the era of radiation treatment as an alternative to surgery began. The discovery of transmissible cancers and experimental growth of cancer cells offered new information and not only led to a better understanding of the cellular composition of cancers but also yielded important information that ultimately paved the way to chemotherapy. These efforts also advanced the understanding of the pathogenesis of tumors and induced new clinical and pathologic classifications and subspecializations. It is important to emphasize that many of the initiatives and discoveries made in Europe in the second half of the 19th century were first put into clinical practice in the United States during the first 2 decades of the 20th century, including the use of x-ray and radium for irradiation and as diagnostic tools. All things considered, the progress made between 1884 and 1922 came about through the hard work of many eminent individuals; however, there were 7 foresighted pathfinders (3 surgeons, 2 pathologists, 1 internist, and 1 physicist) who-despite their widely diverse backgrounds, personalities, and expertise-made remarkable contributions to oncology to an extent that is still felt today.

Transitions in palliative care: conceptual diversification and the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care.

Palliative care acknowledges the historical origin of the hospice developed in the UK during the 20th century. Palliative care initially focused primarily on end-of-life care provided at hospices, but then changed to at-home care, leading to the formation of a support system provided by the palliative care team. The palliative care team further coordinated with acute care hospitals and became involved in earlier stages of care as well, such as providing symptomatic relief in conjunction with cancer treatment. On this backdrop, the concept of palliative care itself also evolved over time. In recent years, attempts at early-stage palliative care from the initial stages of treatment are being studied with respect to cases with complications such as advanced cancer. Early-stage palliative care has been reported to improve patient quality of life (QOL), improve depression, reduce the burden on the family, and possibly improve survival prognosis for some advanced cancers. Currently, efforts to integrate palliative care into standard oncology care regimens by providing specialist palliative care and cancer treatment as a single unit are anticipated to enter more widespread practice. Such a care approach differs from conventional palliative care, which is started around the time when the end of conventional cancer treatment, and consists of applying specialist palliative care from the stage where cancer treatments are administered to address with multiple problems. Many breast cancer patients have severe problems such as esthetic outcome, sexuality and psycho-social effects associated with breast cancer itself and treatment. And it effects their QOL for a long time not only during therapy but also having done therapy or recurrence. Therefore, it may be effectiveness for patients to integrate of palliative care into standard oncology care in breast cancer, but the effect of it for only breast cancer patients has not been reported on yet. In this paper, after reviewing the concepts and historical evolution of palliative care, we describe the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care that has been making progress recently.

Aretaeus of Cappadocia (ca 1st-3rd century AD): views on hepatic cancer.

Aretaeus lived in an era when cancer was known to be a fatal disease. He had understood both liver's capacity to regenerate, and its vital role for the body's homeostasis, and proposed the treatment to confront hepatic cancer. Although human's anatomy was well studied, especially in the Alexandrian School, and a plethora of surgical instruments and techniques were available, he had suggested a more holistic-palliative approach for hepatic cancer by applying a suitable dietetic regime, pain killers and psychological support.

[The first 25 years of oncopsychology at the National Institute of Oncology: antecedents and events (1988-2013)]. / Az onkopszichológia elso 25 éve az Országos Onkológiai Intézetben: elozmények és események (1988-2013).

The first oncopsychological department was established in National Institute of Oncology by Sándor Eckhardt in 1988. At an early stage the specialists who were interested in mental hygiene made a united effort with Katalin Muszbek's oncopsychologic group. Ágnes Riskó was the first specialist who seceded from this group, and she became a permanent member of the onco-hematology group in 1992. Due to the universalized approach, the psyhcologist would become a permanent member of onco-team. The overhand and increasing multidisciplinary cooperation enable to use this accepted method in the daily medical treatment. When necessary, patients' relatives may come in for treatment and this method can help for medical stuff to avoid burnout. As a result of oncopsychology techniques and cooperation of oncologic teamwork the integration of psychosocial intervention into a complex oncologic treatment has already begun. The attendance of supervised onco-psychological specialists is being increased. Our activity contributes to improve our patients' psychosocial standard of living, their cooperation with the medical staff and the atmosphere of oncologic departments. The integration of the approach and methods of psychosocial rehabilitation into the new oncologic professional guideline has also begun.

Electromagnetic machines in cancer treatment: The "Priore affair".

In the 1960s and 1970s the Italian born scientist Antonio Priore, working in France, amazed the public and divided the scientific world with his invention, a machine which could cure a variety of illnesses, including cancer. Gaining the support of the French government and several scientific organizations, Priore received a great amount of money in funds to sustain his research. Without exposing his exact method, the scientific world questioned the legitimacy of Priore's research. For almost two decades scientists, institutes, journalists and cancer patients were implicated in a sensational case, known as the "Priore affair".

Review of the history and development in the field of psychosocial oncology.

Psychosocial oncology is a multi-disciplinary field of practice and, as a recently developed speciality, covers the psychological, social and behavioural dimensions of cancer. We describe the historical background and changing ethos in medical practice in order to understand factors that contributed to the emergence of this new discipline. Modern psychosocial oncology covers a number of topics; the diagnosis and management of psychological morbidity and distress across the cancer continuum from diagnosis through survivorship and, for some patients, terminal illness, the recognition that behaviour and lifestyle contribute to cancer risk and prognosis, the need to include families and carers alongside patients in a comprehensive model of supportive cancer care. Best practice, based on evidence and nationally and internationally accepted guidelines, is being integrated into national cancer plans, and services are briefly described. Future challenges include the need to recognize that the behavioural and mental health sciences have a role to play in comprehensive cancer care and that multi-disciplinary care, which includes psychosocial care, is the best model for ensuring patients needs are comprehensively and adequately met. The return of modern medicine to a more holistic person-focused ethos is needed in order to put the patient back into patient-centred cancer care.

The role of Chinese medicine in clinical oncology.

Chinese Medicine (CM) has been used for several thousand years, playing an important role in the prevention and treatment of diseases including cancer. In the recent four decades, a number of CM herbs have aroused extreme interest in the world-isolating anticancer components from medicinal herbs, using them as biological response modifiers, and most recently as angiogenesis inhibitors. The present review reports both the experimental and clinical results obtained in the field of clinical oncology, especially conducted by our group. The review also presents the possible future of integration of CM and modern medicine in basic research and clinical practice, especially when CM used as adjuvant and maintenance therapy.

The treatment of melanoma at Westminster Hospital in the 20th century.

At Saint Dunstan's Coffee House in 1715 four London men met to form "A charitable proposal for Relieving the Poor and Needy and Other Distressed Persons". The proposal marked the beginnings of Westminster Hospital in London. Following the admission of the first patient in 1720, Westminster Hospital and later Westminster Medical School dominated the medical scene of London for over two and a half centuries until its closure in 1993 and transfer to the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The Hospital and Medical school are credited with pioneering work in the fields of anaesthesia, immunology, bone marrow transplantation and the treatment of cancer. In the 20th century Westminster became a centre of tertiary referrals for cancer and under the leadership of Sir Stanford Cade and later of Gerald Westbury and Kenneth Newton the hospital pioneered the multidisciplinary management of malignant disease exemplified by the internationally- famous Wednesday afternoon clinics where the patients' best interests were discussed and served by a multitude of surgical and medical specialists. This paper focuses on the treatment of melanoma at Westminster Hospital in the 20th Century, placing in perspective the latest therapeutic developments based on the genetics of this cancer.

Sir Stanford Cade KBE CB FRCS (1895-1973): a pioneer in the modern treatment of cancer.

Stanford Cade, born in Tsarist Russia, trained in Medicine first in Brussels and then in London at King's College and Westminster Hospital. His potential as a brilliant clinician was recognized by his appointment to the surgical staff at Westminster at the early age of 29. Here he was one of the first in the UK to use radium in the treatment of a wide variety of tumours. His interests covered the broad spectrum of malignant diseases including the head and neck, breast, bone and soft tissues. He was an early exponent of the multidisciplinary approach to the management of cancer.

Artifacts and Archives/Archives et artefacts de la pratique médicale. The origin of the Canadian Cancer Society.

In 1929, when the Saskatchewan Medical Association created a Cancer Committee, the major achievement of the Committee was the establishment of the first government supported comprehensive provincial cancer control program in Canada. The report also proposed the establishment of a voluntary medical-lay Canadian Society for the Control of Cancer. As the comprehensive cancer control concept spread across Canada within the provinicial medical associations and provinicials governments, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), represented by Dr. John S. McEachern, took up the cause of promoting such a voluntary cancer organization. Initially the idea developed slowly but, in 1935, gained momentum when the Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough, initiated The King George V Silver Jubilee Cancer Fund for Canada and financial support for such a project became a possibility. The focus of this paper is on McEachern's shepherding of the voluntary cancer society idea within the CMA and the convoluted path which led to the provision of financial support for the project by the Trustees of the King George V Cancer Fund. The Canadian Society of the Control of Cancer, later renamed the Canadian Cancer Society, was created by Letters Patent on 28 March 1938.

From screening to clinical research: the cure of leukemia and the early development of the cooperative oncology groups, 1955-1966.

Recent work in the history and sociology of biomedicine has emphasized the novelty of the biomedical enterprise as a distinctive institutional, material, and epistemological configuration. Since World War II, biology and medicine have become such tightly intertwined research enterprises that those working in biomedicine cannot predict whether a particular research project, clinical investigation, or even clinical intervention will result in biological or medical facts. In this paper, we examine part of the process of the emergence of biomedicine by focusing on the development of clinical cancer trials in the United States in the years 1955-66, a period during which the clinical trials program run by the National Cancer Institute became autonomous from the Institute's screening program for anticancer compounds. We examine in particular the work carried out by the cooperative groups and the Acute Leukemia Task Force to which they belonged, analyzing the evolution of the relations between screening, chemotherapy, clinical trials, and clinical research.