Section 27. Neoplasms (Cancer) of the Head and Neck Tumors
The American Cancer Society (ACS) predicted that in 1999 approximately 40,400 new cases of head and neck cancer would be diagnosed in the United States (29,800 with oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer and 10,600 with laryngeal cancer). The same grim reckoning projected 12,300 American deaths in 1999 from this class of cancers. These diagnosis and mortality figures correspond to over 4% of all new cancer cases and 2% of all cancer deaths in the United States annually. Nearly identical percentages are reported from Britain, but head and neck cancers have a much greater impact in certain other parts of the world and are among the leading causes of cancer mortality worldwide.

Section 43. Oncology and the Information Revolution
Clinical oncologists are experiencing unprecedented challenges to research and therapeutic and practice management skills brought on by the necessity to manage the geometric increase in medical information and the striking changes in the clinical practice of oncology demanded by managed competition. The clinical oncologist must be a clinician, researcher, educator, businessperson, statistician, healthcare administrator, and “informatician,” who must interact with the whole patient, both as a specialist and as a primary-care physician.