REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE, INFORMATION SEARCH AND CRITICAL-READING IN THE FIELD OF ONCOLOGY

The aim of this paper is to describe. (1) different times where we nee d to search and to analyse informations and documents in cancer field; (2) the literature process conducting to litterature review. It inclu des, from the formulated question to its answer, the searching of rele vant papers, the critical reading of selected papers, the inclusion of clinical research darn, or even the elaboration of next research prog rams which will lead to new papers; (3) different actual means, specia lly electronic means, to search and select papers: different databases On line or on CD-ROM (Medline, Embase, Cancerlit, Pascal, Toxline, Bi oethics, etc.), searching techniques adapted to cancer field, technica l equipment required (4) critical redding of selected papers. It is ve ry easy to obtain lists of hundreds or even thousands of references, a nd simple rules for selection are needed for entirely redding only a l imited number of relevant papers. A compromise is often difficult to f ind between exhaustivity and limited time we have to search and analys e literature. Synthesis of informations collected in evidence-based co mprehensive reviews are useful for helping doctors to implement resear ch results in their treatment practice.