The Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Oncology

Book Preface

The Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Oncology is a clear, concise, and comprehensive reference book for the busy clinician to use in his or her daily patient encounters. The book has been compiled by clinicians who are working at the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, and Cleveland Clinic, as well as scholars from other academic institutions. To limit the size of the book, less space is dedicated to etiology, pathophysiology, and epidemiology and greater emphasis is placed on practical clinical information. For easy accessibility to the pertinent information, long descriptions are avoided, and more tables, pictures, algorithms, and phrases are included.

The Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Oncology is not intended as a substitute for the many excellent oncology reference textbooks available that are essential for a more complete understanding of the pathophysiology and management of complicated oncology patients. We hope that the reader-friendly format with its comprehensive review of the management of each disease with treatment regimens, including dosing and schedule, makes this book unique and useful for oncologists, oncology fellows, residents, students, oncology nurses, and allied health professionals.

The landscape of oncology has changed substantially since we published the first edition of the book more than 13 years ago. For the fourth edition, we have updated all chapters and added two new chapters, “Clinical Genetics” and “Diagnosis-Driven Individualization of Cancer Care.” In addition, we have included multiple-choice questions for most chapters to enhance the learning experience and help clinicians prepare for their board examinations.

As always, we have attempted to capture the advances in the field and listened to the feedback from readers to improve this edition. We hope that anyone needing a comprehensive review of oncology will find The Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Oncology to be an indispensable resource.

Jame Abraham
James L. Gulley
Carmen J. Allegra