medical oncology


medical oncology

A subspecialty of oncology which in the UK focuses on managing solid (non-haematologic) cancer—i.e., not lymphomas, leukaemias or myelomas—including carcinoma (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell, neuroendocrine, etc.), melanoma, sarcoma, glioma, teratoma, mesothelioma, etc.
Medical oncologists treat solid cancers with chemotherapy and other poisons, biological response modifiers and monoclonal antibodies. Where high-dose chemotherapy is appropriate, the patient’s depleted/damaged bone marrow is reconstituted with the patient’s own, previously stored stem cells.