ONCOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL BASIS OF LOCAL TREATMENT OF CANCER

The term 'local treatment of cancer' can be used firstly, to indicate surgery limited to the primary tumour only, in contrast to regional or radical surgery or secondly, to characterize the extent of surgery on the primary itself. Modern oncology tries to recognize a so-called hi stology- and stage-oriented cancer treatment. An indispensable precond ition of this form of treatment is the accurate classification of tumo urs and thus, the integration of the pathologist into the oncological team. Results of pre-operative and post-operative classification syste ms and treatment data have to be thoroughly documented to compare the validity of different treatment methods.