The medical humanities today: humane health care or tool of governance?

The medical humanities have been presented as a panacea for medical reductionism; a means for 'humanizing' medicine. However, there is a lack of consensus about the appropriate contributing disciplines and how curricula should be taught and assessed. This special issue critically examines the role of the medical humanities in medical education and their potential to serve, inadvertently or otherwise, as a tool of governance.

Toward an aesthetic medicine: developing a core medical humanities undergraduate curriculum.

The medical humanities are often implemented in the undergraduate medicine curriculum through injection of discrete option courses as compensation for an overdose of science. The medical humanities may be reformulated as process and perspective, rather than content, where the curriculum is viewed as an aesthetic text and learning as aesthetic and ethical identity formation. This article suggests that a "humanities" perspective may be inherent to the life sciences required for study of medicine.

Transformation of lymphoma to amyloidoma following radiation therapy.

A 62-year-old man presented with a localized upper-extremity small cell lymphoma with plasmacytoid features and an associated IgM lambda serum immunoglobulin level of 1,730 g/dl. The tumor was treated with 5,960 rad over 47 days. On completion of radiation therapy, the tumor had regressed only minimally, and the monoclonal immunoglobulin level had decreased by 63 per cent; repeat biopsy revealed that the lymphoma had been replaced by a virtually acellular mass of amyloid.

Patterns of relapse in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients who achieved complete remission after combined modality therapy.

Relapse patterns in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer who achieved complete remission were evaluated. After combined modality therapy with induction chemotherapy followed by surgery and/or radiotherapy, 71 of 103 patients were clinically free of disease. The 5-year recurrence rate was estimated at 51%, with a 39% local and 26% distant failure rate by 5 years.