WHO Handbook For Reporting Results of Cancer Treatment [antikvár]

- 5 -1. INTRODUCTION During the last few decades there has been a rapid and continuous increase in the number of investigations of cancer therapy carried out in many parts of the world. This has resulted in an enormous expansion of the cancer literature. However, these investigations are frequently reported in a way which makes it difficult for investigators to compare their results with those of others: essential details of the therapy may be missing, and the methods of evaluating the data can vary considerably. Therefore it has become necessary to develop a "common language" to describe cancer treatment and to agree on internationally acceptable general principles for evaluating data. On the initiative of the World Health Organization two meetings on the standardization of reporting results of cancer treatment were held - in Turin in 1977, and in Brussels in 1979 - with representatives of the European Organization for Research on Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the National Cancer Institute of the USA, the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), as well as with members of several other organizations. This handbook is the result of these combined efforts.