Oncology (from the Ancient Greek onkos (ὄγκος), meaning bulk, mass, or tumor, and the suffix -logy (-λογία), meaning "study of") is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an oncologist.

Oncology is concerned with:

The diagnosis of any cancer in a person
Therapy (e.g. surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other modalities)
Follow-up of cancer patients after successful treatment
Palliative care of patients with terminal malignancies
Ethical questions surrounding cancer care
Screening efforts:

of populations, or
of the relatives of patients (in types of cancer that are thought to have a hereditary basis, such as breast cancer)

Recent use of oral contraceptives linked to breast cancer

Women who recently used oral contraceptives had a 50% greater chance of developing breast cancer than that of women who formerly used or never used oral contraceptives, according to a case-control...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

Vary CRC screening by age, sex, race, ethnicity?

Among adults at average risk for colorectal cancer who undergo screening colonoscopy, the yield of large polyps and tumors varies widely by patient age, sex, race, and ethnicity. This means that an...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

Cancer spending: More patients, not more expensive patients

A 55% jump in total expenditures for cancer treatment from 2001 to 2011 appears to reflect an increase in the number of patients, not an increase in the cost of treating those patients, according to...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

Surgeon General: Tanning, indoor tanning must stop

The U.S. Surgeon General’s office is calling on Americans to do more to help prevent skin cancer, saying that it is a growing public health problem. The five-point call to action singled out...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

Stage esophageal cancer after neoadjuvant chemo

Among patients with resectable esophageal adenocarcinoma, tumor stage after completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a much more important predictor of survival than is initial tumor stage at...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

Oncology hospitalist field is small, but growing

Have you met an oncology hospitalist yet? If you haven’t, you probably will soon. The latest offshoot of hospital medicine aims to take all the strengths of the hospitalist movement – increased...

Field of Interest: Oncology
Type: News Item

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