In this issue of Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America, Guest Editor Clifford Ko, MD has assembled the top experts concerning Outcomes Research in Oncology. Topics in this issue will include: Currently Available Quality Initiatives in Surgical Oncology; Variation in Mortality After High Risk Cancer Surgery: Failure to Rescue; Readmission as a Quality Measure Following High Risk Cancer Surgery; Randomized Controlled Trials in Surgical Oncology: Where Do We Stand?; Lymph Node Staging in GI Malignancies; Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Cancer Care; Patient Safety in Surgical Oncology: Perspective from the Operating Room; Value Based Health Care: A Surgical Oncologist Perspective; Monitoring the Delivery of Cancer Care: Commission on Cancer and National Cancer Data Base; Prediction Tools in Surgical Oncology; Collaboration With the Community Cancer Center: Benefit for All; and Evaluating the Appropriateness of Cancer Care in the United States.

Purchasing is championed as key to improving health systems performance. However, despite the central role the purchasing function plays in many health system reforms, there is very little evidence about its development or its real impact on societal objectives. This book addresses this gap and provides: ·A comprehensive account of the theory and practice of purchasing for health services across Europe ·An up-to-date analysis of the evidence on different approaches to purchasing ·Support for policy-makers and practitioners as they formulate purchasing strategies so that they can increase effectiveness and improve performance in their own national context ·An assessment of the intersecting roles of citizens, the government and the providers Written by leading health policy analysts, this book is essential reading for health policy makers, planners and managers as well as researchers and students in the field of health studies. Contributors: Toni Ashton, Philip Berman, Michael Borowitz, Helmut Brand, Reinhard Busse, Andrea Donatini, Martin Dlouhy, Antonio Duran, Tamás Evetovits, André P. van den Exter, Josep Figueras, Nick Freemantle, Julian Forder, Péter Gaál, Chris Ham, Brian Hardy, Petr Hava, David Hunter, Danguole Jankauskiene, Maris Jesse, Ninel Kadyrova, Joe Kutzin, John Langenbrunner, Donald W. Light, Hans Maarse, Nicholas Mays, Martin McKee, Eva Orosz, John Øvretveit, Dominique Polton, Alexander S. Preker, Thomas A. Rathwell, Sabine Richard, Ray Robinson, Andrei Rys, Constantino Sakellarides, Sergey Shishkin, Peter C. Smith, Markus Schneider, Francesco Taroni, Marcial Velasco-Garrido, Miriam Wiley

Included here is a discussion of the pathophysiological aspects and risks of laparoscopic staging (such as trocar metastases) on the basis of international experience.

Contributors. -- Foreword. -- Preface. -- Getting Started. -- Assessing Available Information. -- Organizing and Preliminary Planning for Surgical Research -- Writing a Protocol: Animals, Humans, and Use of Biologic, Chemical, and Radiologic Agents. -- Grantsmanship. -- Informed Consent and the Protection of Human Research Subjects: Historical Perspectives and Guide to Current United States Regulations. -- Animal Care and Maintenance. -- Funding Strategies and Agencies: Academic-Industrial Relationships; Intellectual Property. -- Statistical Considerations. -- Use of Nonexperimental Studies to Evaluate Surgical Procedures and Other Interventions: The Challenge of Risk Adjustment. -- Measuring Surgical Outcomes. -- Design of Clinical Trials. -- Using Administrative Data for Clinical Research. -- Research in the Intensive Care Unit: Ethical and Methodological Issues. -- Research in the Operating Room. -- Effects of Age and Gender. -- Strategies, Principles, and Techniques Using Transgeni ...

This issue of Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America, Guest Edited by John M. Kane III, MD, is devoted to Sarcomas. Articles in this issue include: Prognostic Factors and Staging for Soft Tissue Sarcomas; Margin Status and Local Recurrence: Correlation or Causation?; Systemic Chemotherapy in the Adjuvant and Clinical Metastatic Setting; Pulmonary Metastasectomy; Regional Therapy for Advanced Extremity Sarcomas; Current Approaches to Retroperitoneal Sarcomas; Updates on the Management of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST); Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Immunologic Implications; Atypical Lipomatous Tumor/Well Differentiated Liposarcoma: What is it?; Modern Surgical Therapy: Limb Salvage and the Role of Amputation; Adjuvant Radiation Therapy: and Preoperative, Postoperative, or Not at All.

In this issue of Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America, Guest Editor Mark Krasna and colleagues discuss a wide range of topics devoted to lung cancer. Articles focus on pathology; updated staging systems; epidemiology of lung cancer - smoking, second hand smoke, and genetics; molecular markers for incidence, prognosis, and response to therapy; screening; diagnostic work-up; non-invasive staging techniques; surgical resection; the role of surgery following induction therapy for stage III NSCLC; the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in NSCLC (stages I-III); and much more.

This issue of the Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America, Guest Edited by Dr. Jesus Esquivel, will focus on the current status and future directions of the treatment of the most common peritoneal surface malignancies: appendix cancer, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and peritoneal mesothelioma. This issue will also outline some of the most common issues that arise regarding cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), such as pharmacokinetic rationale of heat and intraperitoneal chemotherapy, HIPEC techniques and safety considerations, how to start a peritoneal surface malignancy program, anesthesia considerations during cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC, patient selection for cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC, and the role of dystemic chemotherapy in the management of peritoneal surface malignancies of appendiceal and colorectal origin.