Major Advances in the Treatment of Cancer Whatdoes a Non-Oncologist need to know?

The last few years have see n major advances in th e mana gement of can cers. since it is not possible for the non-oncologistto keep abreast with the latest developments in the field of oncology, this review summarises the most sign ificant advances in thearea of treatment of various cancers over the past four years. in some areas, a par adigm sh ift has occu rred setting new standards ofcare, for example, the use of targeted the rapy (tras tuzumab) in adjuvant treatment of breast cancer; th e use of monoclonal antibodies(rituxirnab), with or without chemo therapy, in the treatm ent and maintenance of ind olent lymphoma; the use of the tyrosi ne kinaseinhibitor, imatinib, in the adjuv ant sett ing in resec ted gastrointestinal stromal tum ours. in ot her areas, new treatments have emerged,such as, the use of targeted therapie s in hepatocellular carcinoma (so rafenib) and ren al cell carcinoma (sunitinib, sorafenib, ternsirolimus,bevacizumab). in some other cance rs, th e addition of targeted therapies has improved survival rates, for example, in coloncancer (bevacizumab, cetuxirnb, panitumumab), head and neck ca nce rs (cetuximab), and pan creatic adenocarcinoma (erlotinib). inyet another group, new targeted th er apies have emerged where resistance was previously observed with the existing targeted therapies,for example, brea st cancer (lapatinib), ch ronic myeloid leuk emi a (dasat inib). finally, the addition of chemotherapeutic agents hasimproved survival in some forms of cance r, fo r example, oxaliplatin in adjuv ant treatm ent of colon cancer, temozolamide in glioblastomamultiforrne , and adjuv ant chemotherapy in non -small cell lung cancer. the inform ation summarized here may provide useful forthe busy physician need ing an update in the field of oncology