Principles of Surgical Oncology

The synthesis during the present decade of different arts and sciences to form oncology as a mUltidisciplinary subject is of profound importance for coordinating the clinical and research efforts to control a number of diseases that cause high mortality and morbidity in the human race and to elucidate their causation. These diseases traditionally have been grouped together under the general term of cancer, without any scientific reason and irrespective of many differences existing between them. The word cancer, because it is synonymous with diseases that cause suffering and death, naturally generates fear in people throughout the world. Cancer fortunately has a changing face caused by the realization that these diseases are different diseases with variable etiology and prognosis; they need different kinds of treatment, and even prevention is a practical proposition. The time has therefore come to delete the term cancer from our terminol­ ogy as unscientific and unhelpful and to substitute oncological diseases governed by the system of knowledge designated oncology. This conforms also with the designations used for other groups of diseases. In the divisions of oncology an important place is held by surgical oncology because many oncological diseases require surgical treatment alone, or in combination with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Combina­ tion therapy is being used effectively for an increasing number of these diseases, and this trend will become more pronounced as chemotherapy develops. The results achieved with available chemicals and present dosage schedules are impressive.