September/October 2002 issue of CA - A Cancer Journal for Clinicians

American Cancer Society
Friday, 20 September 2002

Breast cancer continues to be the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States, but recent advances have facilitated diagnosis and treatment at earlier stages of disease.

"Increased use of and improvements in mammographic technology have resulted in a marked increase in the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)," writes the team of authors who compiled the Standard for Breast Conservation Therapy in the Management of Invasive Breast Carcinoma. The updated guidelines appear in the September/October 2002 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

The availability of a range of diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions for invasive breast carcinoma, coupled with the marked increase in the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ, prompted the task force's decision to revise both the existing guidelines and create the companion document, Standard for the Management of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ of the Breast (DCIS), which also appears in this issue.

These two sets of guidelines are designed to provide a framework for the multidisciplinary management of breast cancer, and a basis for tracking continuing advances in diagnosis, treatment, and disease management. The four national organizations that collaborated on the two documents (the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Radiology, the College of American Pathologists, and the Society of Surgical Oncology) released the initial set of guidelines in 1992.

Also in this issue of CA, a team of authors reviews available data regarding exposure to organochlorines (a class of chemicals including DDT and PCBs) as a possible risk factor for breast cancer, and provides an analysis as to why existing research does not support such a connection. Although they were widely used in the United States from the early 1940s until the 1960s in agriculture and industry DDT and PCB use were banned in the US during the 1970s.

CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, published for the American Cancer Society by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, is the most widely circulated cancer journal in the world. It appears six times a year and publishes articles, usually of a review nature, on all aspects of cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

If you would like a copy of the September/October 2002 issue, an interview with any of the authors or an American Cancer Society authority on any of these or other topics, please contact Wendi Klevan at 404-417-5837 or Shawn Steward at 404-417-5850.

All articles in CA are now available online in full-text and PDF formats at http://CAonline.AmCancerSoc.org. Visit CA Online for free access to all content published since 1990.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy, and service. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Inc. is a global publisher of medical, nursing, and allied health information resources in book, journal, looseleaf, and electronic media formats. The company is a unit of Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science, a group of leading publishing companies offering specialized publications and software in medicine, pharmacy, science, and related areas.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org