This book presents in detail the problems and ethical challenges in daily oncological practice. 

In western industrialized countries, roughly 25 percent of all citizens still die from cancer. Despite significant progress in basic science and in individual areas of clinical care, even in the 21st century, being diagnosed with cancer has lost none of its dread and can still be a death sentence. This situation raises many problems and challenges for medical ethics, e.g., the question of the benefits and risks of prevention programs, or the right to know and not to know. 

Clinical trials with cancer patients and quality assurance for surgery, radiotherapy and medication also pose a series of ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, cancer treatment is a psychological challenge not only for patients but also for physicians and caregivers. The issues of adequate pain management and good palliative care, of treatment limiting and the question of assisted suicide at the end of life also have to be considered. In order to reflect the subject's diverse and multifaceted nature, the book incorporates legal, ethnographic, historical and literary perspectives into ethical considerations.

Cancer as an ethical challenge

Historical aspects of the "fight against cancer
One in four dies of cancer." Questions about the epidemiology of malignant tumors
Ethical issues related to human papillomavirus vaccination programs: an example from Bangladesh
Ethical challenges around cell lines in cancer research
Risk-adapted prevention. Governance perspective for benefits of genetic (breast cancer) risk
The right to know and not to know: predictive genetic diagnosis and non-diagnosis
Benefits and harms of cancer screening
Ethical dilemmas in conducting clinical trials
Ethical aspects in cancer drug approval, balancing individual versus societal perspectives
Liver living donation for cancer patients: benefits, risks, justification
Quality assurance of cancer medication and the challenge of biosimilars
Cancer in children
Pain and palliative medicine
Advance directives for medical decisions
Euthanasia and assisted suicide
Doctor's health and the health ofcaregivers
Diagnosis breast cancer. An ethnographic study of illness and disease
The patient's view
The patients' advocate
Cancer in literature.