Cancer Consult: Expertise for Clinical Practice

The field of oncology benefits from several large-scale reference books and a host of monographs dedicated to specific cancers. However, truly excellent practice and review books are, surprisingly, quite scarce. Outside of a scant handful of books and online reference tools that offer clinical response practice and board review in a basic question and answer format, there are no resources that offer a robust, engaging, fully referenced tool for these vital activities in every oncologist’s and oncology trainee’s work. This print and electronic book seeks to fill that void, offering comprehensive question-and-answer style content that covers the entire specialty of oncology and provides practicing oncologists with a fascinating and immediately applicable compendium of vital information dealing with a well-balanced selection of common and uncommon cancers. At the heart of this book is the editor’s and authors’ desire to overcome the controversies and barriers to practice that usually emerge following the appearance of new data. In every section, the user is guided toward collaboration in ongoing clinical research – for example, via discussions of well-designed ongoing clinical trials in each specific area.

Developed with both the teacher and learner in mind, this book also offers trainees and fellows an excellent opportunity to enhance their preparation for the ABIM oncology fellowship exam as well as for the oncology boards. It will also be an extremely useful tool for oncologists working toward the recertification exam. This comprehensive, beefy book includes hundreds of painstakingly developed multiple-choice and mini-case-based questions covering the principles of medical oncology, malignant hematology, surgical oncology, and radiation oncology. It also contains mini-cases and questions dealing with the biology, diagnosis, classification, staging, and multidisciplinary treatment of cancers at every anatomic site. The very latest topics are included, such as molecular techniques, targeted therapies, and translational cancer research. Concise but detailed answers are referenced to key journals and books, and evidence-based wherever possible. NCCN guidelines are also referenced as appropriate. With its powerful focus on take-home messages from and for actual clinical work, this book will help keep oncologists up to date, bridging the gaps between journal and reference literature, conferences, and their existing knowledge base.

Syed A. Abutalib, MD, is Assistant Director for Stem Cell Transplantation at the Chicago-area branch of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, or CTCA. CTCA is a group of five private treatment centers in the USA focused on patient care in oncology. For several years now, Dr. Abutalib has authored the very popular and well-received "Clinical Conundrums" feature in the oncologist tabloid paper Clinical Oncology (McMahon Publishing), and this is where the idea came to him to enhance and expand his concept from that experience into this book.

Maurie Markman, MD, is Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs and National Director of Medical Oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). A nationally-renowned oncologist, Dr. Markman has more than 20 years of experience in cancer treatment and gynecologic research at some of the country’s most recognized facilities. Dr. Markman has served as the Vice President for Clinical Research and Chairman of the Department of Gynecologic Medical Oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, Dr. Markman spent 11 years as Chairman of the Department of Hematology/Oncology and Director of the Taussig Cancer Center at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He also spent five years as Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.