THE TRUE COST OF A NUCLEAR DETERRENT

This months editorial covers the recent leaked report from the US Department of Health and Disease Control, showing the patterns of nuclear fallout across the US resulting from Cold War testing. The editorial discusses the impact of these data on cancer incidence and the worldwide effects of nuclear testing on the general population and military personnel. It concludes: 'It is easy to say that lessons should be learnt from the history of the nuclear deterrent, but unfortunately, with the escalation of the nuclear race in India and Pakistan, and the possibility of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda acquiring materials to create crude nuclear devices, it is likely that the same mistakes will be repeated. We may never fully realise the true human cost of military advancement.'

REVIEWS

• The evolution of tamoxifen therapy in breast cancer: selective oestrogen-receptor modulators and downregulators
  
• Use of minimally invasive oesophagectomy for cancer of the oesophagus
  
• Clinical management of dyspnoea
  
• Mediastinal (thymic) large B-cell lymphoma: where do we stand?
  
• Culprit and victim - DNA topoisomerase II
  
• Cancer causation: the Darwinian downside of past success?
  

THE LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES

ENOUGH TIME WASTED IN SOUTH AFRICA

This months Leading Edge editorial discusses the South African Governments reluctance to provide the antiretroviral drug nevirapine to pregnant women with HIV. The drug has been shown to be effective in preventing mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission; however the South African Government have recently launched an appeal to a March 11 court hearing which instructed them to make the drug available in state facilities offering HIV-1 counselling and testing.

REVIEWS

• Epidemiology of drug-resistant malaria
  
• p values for pathogens: statistica
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