[Oncology] Introduction

Oncologists specialise in diseases caused by cancer. Cancer has a more accurate name: malignant neoplasm.
There is significant overlap with many specialties.
Palliative care medicine is strongly associated with oncology due to the dire prognosis of many malignancies and the slow course of cancer.

 

Etymology

Ancient Greek ὄγκος (ónkos) = lump, mass, bulk
Ancient Greek λογία (logia) = study

Ancient Greek νέος (néos) = new, young
Ancient Greek πλάσμα (plásma) = formation

 

Subspecialties

Most oncologists are subspecialised in one management discipline:

• Medical oncology : use chemotherapy, hormone therapy and biological agents (systemic treatments).
• Clinical oncology (sometimes called radiation oncology) : undergo radiology training. They can use radiotherapy and systemic treatments.
• Surgical oncology : surgeons subspecialised in oncology.

Senior oncologists usually maintain 1, 2 or (rarely) 3 site specialties. This means that they prioritise learning about these sites and preferentially manage patients with a malignancy of these sites. This happens because optimal practice in oncology changes rapidly. It would be impossible to maintain satisfactory knowledge in more than 3 systems. Examples of site specialty pairings:

• Thoracic malignancies and skin cancers
• Lung cancer and urological malignancies
• CNS malignancies and prostate cancer

 

Hybrid specialties

• Paediatric oncology
• Haemo-oncology
• Neuro-oncology 

Modern oncology usually involves a multidisciplinary team. This includes physicians from:

• Radiology
• Pathology 
• Paediatrics (when appropriate) 

Often these physicians will have subspecialised in oncology or develop a special interest in it. 

 

History taking 

 

General pathophysiology of cancer

 

Management principles

 

Cancer incidence for common cancers

 

Other diseases:

• Paraneoplastic syndromes
• Adrenal cancer
• Phaeochromocytoma 
• Sarcoma
• Osteosarcoma
• Chondrosarcoma