Volume 3, Number 1

Yasser Haba MRCP Specialist Registrar, Oncology Department, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Catherine Jephcott BMBCh MA MRCP FRCR Consultant Oncologist, Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Breast cancer is the most common cancer occurring in women. Each year, over 41,000 new cases present in the UK. It accounts for almost one in three of all cancer cases in women, and the lifetime risk of breast cancer in women is currently one in nine.1 Adjuvant therapy is increasingly used and has resulted in a large number of patients being exposed to a range of anticancer treatment modalities.

Graham H Jackson, Editor

I am delighted to welcome you to the third volume of the British Journal of Cancer Management. I hope you find the content both topical and informative – we have continued to work hard to provide you with authoritative, timely and well-written reviews to keep you up to date with the latest developments in the field.

Steve Johnson FRCP FRCPath Consultant Haematologist, Taunton and Somerset Hospital

The clinical consultation is central to medical practice. It is the setting in which the doctor meets the patient and where clinical decisions are taken. The advice, investigation and treatment decisions that take place during the consultation have important implications for the patient and their family but also for the healthcare service and the wider economy of society.

Robert Thomas FRCP MD FRCR Consultant Oncologist, Addenbrooke’s and Bedford Hospitals, Cambridge University NHS Trust; Cathryn Woodward MRCP FRCR

Although the prognosis of indolent prostate cancer is good, patients with slowly progressive disease are less satisfied with surveillance alone.1,2 In this group in particular, there is enormous interest among patients and advocacy groups in finding a safe, patient-acceptable nutritional addition to surveillance.3 Halting the progress of the disease with dietary manipulation, or slowing the rate of progression by two to three years in an elderly population, could avoid the toxicities of radical therapies.

Joanne Rule Chief Executive, Cancerbackup

There are inherent difficulties in developing local services for cancer treatment without creating a ‘postcode lottery’. Building on the Calman Hine report1 and The NHS Cancer Plan,2 the current policy framework for cancer promotes a network of care in England and Wales to enable the patient, wherever they live, to be sure that the treatment they receive is of a uniformly high standard.

Cathryn Woodward MRCP FRCR Consultant Oncologist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge; Paul Tisi MS FRCR Consultant Surgeon, Bedford Hospital; David Gilligan BSc FRCP(Edin) FRCR Consultant Oncologist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge

Primary pleural mesothelioma usually presents with thoracic symptoms and is perceived to have a low propensity for metastasising. In pathological series, however, metastatic deposits have been reported in up to 50% of cases at autopsy; the most common sites are the adrenal glands, brain, bone, thyroid and lymph nodes.1 We present a patient with pleural mesothelioma who developed small bowel obstruction secondary to intussusception of intraluminal jejunal metastases occurring in the absence of peritoneal disease.

Graham H Jackson MA MBBS FRCP FRCPath MD Clinical Director of Haematology, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is the most common haematological malignancy in the UK, with over 9,200 new cases being diagnosed each year, and is increasing in incidence. NHL is not one disease but an ‘umbrella’ term for a group of disorders. Classification of these is complex, but the majority (95%) of tumours are of B-cell origin.