Cancer: Viruses' backup plan.

Delivery Of Health Care, Integrated

A health care system which combines physicians, hospitals, and other medical services with a health plan to provide the complete spectrum of medical care for its customers. In a fully integrated system, the three key elements - physicians, hospital, and health plan membership - are in balance in terms of matching medical resources with the needs of purchasers and patients. (Coddington et al., Integrated Health Care: Reorganizing the Physician, Hospital and Health Plan Relationship, 1994, p7)

Oncolytic Viruses

Tumor-selective, replication competent VIRUSES that have antineoplastic effects. This is achieved by producing cytotoxicity-enhancing proteins and/or eliciting an antitumor immune response. They are genetically engineered so that they can replicate in CANCER cells but not in normal cells, and are used in ONCOLYTIC VIROTHERAPY.

Medicare Part D

A stand-alone drug plan offered by insurers and other private companies to beneficiaries that receive their Medicare Part A and/or B benefits through the Original Medicare Plan. It includes Medicare Private Fee-for-Service Plans that do not offer prescription drug coverage and Medicare Cost Plans offering Medicare prescription drug coverage. The plan was enacted as the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 with coverage beginning January 1, 2006.

Seer Program

A cancer registry mandated under the National Cancer Act of 1971 to operate and maintain a population-based cancer reporting system, reporting periodically estimates of cancer incidence and mortality in the United States. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program is a continuing project of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Among its goals, in addition to assembling and reporting cancer statistics, are the monitoring of annual cancer incident trends and the promoting of studies designed to identify factors amenable to cancer control interventions. (From National Cancer Institute, NIH Publication No. 91-3074, October 1990)

Satellite Viruses

Defective viruses which can multiply only by association with a helper virus which complements the defective gene. Satellite viruses may be associated with certain plant viruses, animal viruses, or bacteriophages. They differ from satellite RNA; (RNA, SATELLITE) in that satellite viruses encode their own coat protein.