This book describes the evolution of treatment in oncology through the lens of approximately
250 landmark clinical trials. The well-designed clinical trial is essential to the practice of
medicine. There is no field that has embraced or been transformed more by the clinical trial
than oncology. Each primary cancer site has a remarkable story that can be told through
clinical trials. For example patients who presented decades ago with soft tissue sarcoma of
the extremities would invariably undergo limb amputation. The landmark National Cancer
Institute study by Rosenberg et al. randomized patients to limb sparing surgery followed by
adjuvant radiation therapy compared with limb amputation. This study helped change the standard
of care by allowing most patients to retain their functioning limbs with an improvement in
quality of life and no compromise in overall survival. Such major clinical trials for common
malignancies including breast prostate lung gastrointestinal genitourinary and gynecologic
cancers are discussed. Because oncology is multidisciplinary this book should be of interest
for radiation oncologists surgeons medical oncologists and other physicians interested in
learning more about the landmark trials that have shaped oncology.
