ONCOLOGY Vol 26 No 6

This review by Aneja et al provides an excellent discussion of prostate external beam hypofractionated radiation therapy and its potential benefits and pitfalls.

In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Aneja and colleagues explore the beneficial aspects of the use of hypofractionated radiotherapy in the treatment of adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Dutcher, Mourad, and Ennis provide a current review of some newer strategies in the surgical and systemic treatment options for localized and advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Drs. Dutcher, Mourad, and Ennis have provided an excellent review of current and potential future treatments of renal cell carcinoma (RCC); we would like to highlight some salient points from a urologic perspective.

As practicing doctors and a practicing nutritionist in a large pediatric oncology program, we applaud Nicole Fox and Alison Freifeld for questioning the utility of the neutropenic diet.

The article by Fox and Freifeld presents a comprehensive history of the rationale for the neutropenic diet, along with important studies of this diet.

Review of the pathophysiology of foodborne illness and pertinent studies about the neutropenic diet lead to the conclusion that there is no clear benefit from the longstanding dietary restrictions that may be imposed during neutropenia. Instead, we propose adoption of standard safe food handling methods to allow for a more liberalized diet in the neutropenic patient.

Given that prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous cancer among men in the Western world, its treatment is of great medical and public significance.

In this article, we review the current guidelines for adjuvant endocrine therapy in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, and we discuss the clinical trials that were used to develop these guidelines.

The direction of research into adjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer has been determined in large part by historical and cultural differences between Europe and the United States

The review by Drs. Ruta Rao and Melody Cobleigh in this issue of ONCOLOGY summarizes the state-of-the-art adjuvant hormonal therapy for breast cancer concisely and appropriately.

In the current critical review we discuss these emerging trends in localized and systemic treatment as well as possible interesting combinations of the two modalities. Finally, we discuss the role of the new systemic agents in non–clear cell RCC.