Max J. Coppes, MD, PhD, MBA

The manuscript by Kevin R. Krull, PhD, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (Survivors of childhood ALL need continued support for neurocognitive impairments) and the one by Donghao Lu and colleagues in Annals of Oncology provide a sobering perspective to the major advances achieved in curing cancer and, as such, suggest that the term “victory” should be used with caution.

A new federal requirement in oncology is the inclusion of patient-reported drug- and device-related outcomes during oncology treatment. Federal agencies want evidence of the effect of cancer treatment directly from patients — their assessment of the symptoms and adverse events experienced during treatment. The patient reports are not designed to replace the traditional reporting of symptoms and adverse events by clinicians, but this new expectation signals a striking change: Federal agencies expect our increased attention to the patient’s experience of any given treatment.

The eponym Wilms tumor is well known to pediatric oncologists all over the world and refers to the most common form of renal cancer in the pediatric age group. Its occurrence in adults is rare, but not unheard of. Wilms tumor, also referred to as nephroblastoma, is named after the German surgeon Max Wilms, who was born Nov. 5, 1867 in Hünshoven near Aachen, Germany.

Much has been written about Madame or “Marie” Curie, born Marya Salomée Sklodowska, but then who amongst us can boast about having received not one but two Nobel Prizes: the first in physics in 1903 together with her husband Pierre, the second in chemistry in 1911.

Much has been written about Madame (Marie) Curie, born Marya Salomée Sklodowska, but then who amongst us can boast about having received not one but two Nobel Prizes: the first in physics in 1903 together with her husband Pierre, the second in chemistry in 1911.

On a damp rainy evening in California the two of us — one a “hardcore” oncologist, the other a “passionate” hematologist — were discussing the apparent shortage of true hematology experts, both in the pediatric and the internal medicine worlds.

“On some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen” immortalized the name Hodgkin. He described a pathologic relationship between the lymph nodes and the spleen in his 1832 publication.