Product Description

This massive revision of the highly acclaimed first edition presents a wealth of new information and insights on every aspect of the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, initial treatment, and long-term management of all varieties of thyroid cancer. Paramount is a thorough treatment of the nuclear medical aspects of diagnosing and managing the thyroid cancer patient. This includes extensive discussion of isotopes, isotope uptake and scanning procedures, radioisodine ablation and dosimetry (with or without recombinant human TSH), stunning, octreotide and FDG-PET scanning, and various alternative imaging modalities. Additional highlights include management of the scan negative and thyroglobulin-positive patient, ultrasound of the lymph nodes, local adjuncts to therapy of metastases, low iodine diets and cookbooks, future directions in therapy, and alternative therapies when traditional surgery and radioactive iodine fail.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1366938 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 740 pages

From The New England Journal of Medicine
Thyroid cancer, an uncommon disease, accounts for only about 1 percent of new cancers diagnosed each year. In contrast, benign thyroid nodules are common, with 5 to 10 percent of women having one or more palpable lumps in the thyroid. The challenge facing the clinician is therefore to distinguish the small proportion of patients with thyroid cancer from the larger number with benign, nodular enlargement of the gland. Opinions differ widely as to how best (and most cost effectively) to examine patients with thyroid enlargement in whom the diagnosis of thyroid cancer is a possibility. Once the diagnosis of thyroid cancer has been made, the next challenge is to determine the optimal approach to treatment to improve the prognosis in what is usually, in the case of differentiated thyroid cancer, a forgiving and relatively "benign" disease. Because of the rarity of thyroid cancer and its typically good prognosis, there have been no prospective studies of treatment options for the common forms of the disease. This, in turn, means that there is debate about the optimal use of surgery and radioiodine to treat differentiated thyroid tumors as well as about the most appropriate means of follow-up to detect recurrent or residual disease.

These controversies are highlighted in Thyroid Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management. The book brings together the views of experts (many from the Washington, D.C., area) in a wide range of specialties involved in the treatment of patients with thyroid cancer. The book does not attempt to reach a consensus regarding some of the debated issues, and conflicting opinions are appropriately expressed. Relatively little space is devoted to the assessment of patients with one or more thyroid nodules, although the use of fine-needle aspiration to obtain specimens for cytologic examination clearly emerges as the first step. More coverage of the debate on this topic would have been useful, since a "lump in the thyroid" is such a common clinical problem and is managed in a variety of clinical settings. What is surprising is that suppressive therapy with thyroxine appears in the diagnostic workup in the first figure in the book, even though evidence of its lack of specificity and sensitivity is presented in the text. Clearly, this is a question that will benefit from more detailed cost-benefit analysis.

The remainder of the book is conveniently divided into sections, each devoted to a particular type of thyroid cancer and covering etiology, epidemiology, pathology, treatment, and follow-up. Although this arrangement results in some repetition among sections (and leaves some of them very short), it does allow the reader to focus quickly on a specific cancer during consultations. Particularly helpful is the pragmatic approach adopted by the chief contributor to the discussions of surgery, Orlo Clark, who outlines his own policy for thyroid lobectomy and total thyroidectomy if the diagnosis of thyroid cancer is known or suspected from the results of preoperative cytologic examinations. The sections on pathology are also useful, although unfortunately the excellent illustrations of cytopathological and histopathological specimens are not in color.

Even though thyroid cancer is uncommon, a number of factors have made it a high-profile disease. Not the least of these factors is the public and professional concern about the effect of radiation exposure, particularly from nuclear testing or accidental release, on the risk of thyroid cancer. This topic is well reviewed in Thyroid Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management, which presents up-to-date information on radiation exposure from the Nevada test site and from the disaster at Chernobyl. Other areas of topical interest are also well covered and include the rapid advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, which have revolutionized our approach to family screening for these sometimes inherited tumors.

We still have much to learn about this group of diseases. Still needed are an understanding of the pathogenesis of the other differentiated thyroid cancers, a more efficient means of securing a preoperative diagnosis from cytologic investigation, optimization of surgical and radionuclide therapy, and better post-treatment follow-up with imaging and tumor markers such as thyroglobulin. This information will accrue with further laboratory investigation of this group of diseases and an understanding of the cell biology, as well as with careful audit of the long-term outcome of patients treated according to defined protocols. This book illustrates the importance of the multidisciplinary approach available in major medical centers for the care of patients with thyroid cancer. The wide-ranging and topical nature of this book will interest those working in many fields of medicine. It should be essential reading for trainees in endocrinology, pathology, imaging, nuclear medicine, surgery, and oncology, as well as for specialists in those fields.

Jayne Franklyn, M.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © 2000 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Review

From the reviews

"...our present state of knowledge provides clinicians a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities to effectively manage this group of cancers. I believe the knowledge contained in this text will give the practicing clinician the necessary information to provide patients the latest and best therapeutic techniques."-Foreword by Ernest L. Mazzaferri, MD

"This is an excellent comprehensive up-to-date text that is scholarly and complete, yet thoroughly readable. It provides guidance to clinicians and others interested in thyroid cancer based on a combination of a distillate of the published literature [which is fully documented] and the personal experience of the expert author of each chapter. . .the text reads quickly. . . I recommend this text to anyone interested in an up-to-date, detailed, clinical guideline to the management of patients with thyroid cancer and the clinical science behind the recommendation."-Journal of Nuclear Medicine

"This book illustrates the importance of the multidisciplinary approach available in major medical centers for the care of patients with thyroid cancer. The wide-ranging topical nature of this book will interest those working in many fields of medicine. It should be essential reading for trainees in endocrinology, pathology, imaging, nuclear medicine, surgery, and oncology, as well as for specialists in those fields."-The New England Journal of Medicine

"The book is truly unique and is a critical addition to the contemporary endocrine texts held by general physicians, surgeons, and endocrinologists alike. The book is designed to be a comprehensive guide for clinical management of thyroid cancer and in this regard, is an overwhelming success...One of the most important aspects of this text is the multidisciplinary emphasis provided to all the sub specialists who attend patients with thyroid neoplasms... The book is uniquely organized with several chapters exclusively devoted to the surgical and medical management of individual types of thyroid cancer. This organization is important, because it helps emphasize that each thyroid cancer is unique and not necessarily amenable to one standardized form of treatment...A parallel emphasis of the book is the reliance on evidence-based practice...each chapter is thoroughly referenced, making it easy for the reader to ascertain the original studies on which these conclusions and controversy are based....One of the strengths of this book is the devotion of separate chapters to the management of unique thyroid cancers and unique patients...The text is right up -to- date with regards to the molecular biology of thyroid cancers, the management of medullary thyroid carcinoma, the use of alternative imaging techniques and the use of rhTSH for scanning patients with a history of thyroid cancer...To conclude, this is a unique and important text for all practitioners caring for patients with thyroid cancer. I congratulate the Editor and Authors for their success in detailing this complex and rapidly changing field." ------Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism

"...recommended for anyone who would like a comprehensive reference on the practical aspects of thyroid cancer management." - Head & Neck

"This comprehensive book brings an instructive review of present knowledge on the pathology, etiology, epidemiology, diagnostic methods and the methods of surgical, radioiodine and chemotherapeutic treatment of various forms of thyroid cancer. Written by outstanding experts and professionally edited by Leonard Wartofsky, it may be considered of substantial utility to all physicians dealing with thyroid diseases." - Endocrine Regulations

From the reviews of the second edition:

"An excellent, truly comprehensive book that covers the etiology, pathogenesis, and clinical management of all forms of thyroid cancer. … While the book is written clearly enough to be accessible to physicians in training, it will probably be most useful for practicing physicians. The targeted readers include endocrinologists, endocrine surgeons, nuclear medicine specialists, pathologists, and oncologists. … This is an outstanding textbook … . surely a work to be added to the library of every clinician taking care of patients with thyroid cancer." (Brian W. Kim, Doody’s Review Service, May, 2006)

"This book includes almost twice as many chapters and contributors as the first edition. I especially enjoyed the addition of patient-focused content, including lists of useful books and Web sites and practical advice regarding radioiodine treatment … . an excellent, up-to-date book that is of practical value across all specialties involved in the management of thyroid cancer. It also provides a scholarly overview of the evidence base." (Jayne Franklyn, The New England Journal of Medicine, July, 2006)

"This is the second edition of an outstanding textbook edited by Leonard Wartofsky and Douglas Van Nostrand. The editors are to be congratulated on bringing together a remarkable array of multidisciplinary authors, who cover every topic pertaining to the clinical management of thyroid cancer. … Overall, I would highly recommend this book to all practitioners and associated specialties involved in the management of thyroid cancer. The book is clearly and concisely written, well illustrated … . an excellent textbook." (John Watkinson, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Vol. 90, June, 2008)

Customer Reviews

Do not waste money in buying this book!!!!
I was very disappointed after buying this book. Not to mention this book cost me nearly 200 U. S. dollars. Anyway, money is not the matter. If after reading this book it really helps me to manage Thyroid Cancer patient better, even two thousand dollars are worth of that. The problem is that the title is totally mis-leading. Howe can it be called a comprehensive textbook on treating Thyroid Cancer?? For a comprehensive book, like DeVita's Cancer, princple and practice of oncology, Harrison's textbook on Internal Medicine, or Henry Kaplan's Hodgkin's Lymphoma these are the true all time classics or what we call " bible " on these subjects. Concerning this book, I think a chapter on thyroid cancer from any standard textbook of cancer covers as much, if not more than it. Just take one example, it did not mention a single word on how to treat patient with recurrence in neck node or at least give us a guidline for that. All other related topics are very briefly given and some are not touched at all. I hope Mazzaferri's textbook or other larger textbook on thyroid cancer can actully do the job it should be. A real " comprehensive "textbook for reference for the managment of CA Thyroid.

Great resource for all endocrinologists
A manuscript like this is very important. It reviews nearly every topic in the area of thyroid cancer and provides evidence-based guidelines for clinicians to follow. Thyroid cancer is relatively uncommon, although for endocrinologists, it is the most common cancer they will see. Every clinician who evaluates, recommends treatment, and follows patients with this disease needs a resource like this to refer to from time to time. The chapters are easy to read, the index very helpful, and the information very informative and current. It is a perfect addition to the library for all endocrinologists, and is especially useful for those beginning their careers. I commend the editors and all the chapter authors for putting together this excellent book.

State-of-the-art in Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management edited by Leonard Wartofsky & Douglas Van Nostrand is one of the best Textbooks covering all aspects of thyroid cancer that I've ever read. The authors and their colleagues should be very pleased with this second edition and its outstanding amount of information.
Definitely, I congratulate the authors for this valuable contribution to basic and clinical endocrinologists.