AFP offers a variety of article series developed to cover core curriculum topics in family medicine, while drawing from a pool of unsolicited articles to balance the topics. Since it's not possible to put articles from each series into any single issue, it's easy to lose sight of how much is packed into a single year—so here's a reminder:

• Annual Clinical Focus (ACF). Articles that bear the ACF logo exemplify the American Academy of Family Physician's annual clinical focus on topics in family medicine. This year's ACF topic is cancer: prevention, detection, management, support, and survival (see article on page 1123).

• Cardiovascular Medicine Update. Articles in this series provide state-of-the-art reviews of diagnosis and management of cardiovascular conditions and are provided or reviewed by the American Heart Association.

• Clinical Opinion. Occasionally, AFP publishes an article featuring an individualized approach to the management of a medical condition or an extensive commentary on a clinical subject.

• Clinical Pharmacology. This series, coordinated by Richard W. Sloan, M.D., R.Ph., York, Pa., offers brief reviews of drug therapy, with an emphasis on new drugs and new applications of established drugs.

• End-of-Life Care. This series includes articles and editorials on end-of-life care issues facing family physicians. Two features in this series were published in the previous issue of AFP. The article “Identifying and Managing Preparatory Grief and Depression at the End of Life,” by Vyjeyanthi S. Periyakoil, M.D., and James Hallenbeck, M.D., points out that the symptoms traditionally used to identify depression may be unreliable in dying patients, because these symptoms are also present in preparatory grief and as a part of the normal dying process (Am Fam Physician 2002;65:883–90). A patient information handout on dying and preparatory grief accompanies the article (Am Fam Physician 2002;65:897). A special editorial on end-of-life care issues was published in the same issue (Am Fam Physician 2002;65:783–7).

• Office Procedures. Articles in this series focus on the methods of performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. On page 1155 of this issue, you'll find the third in a mini-series of articles adapted from the Academy Collection book Office Procedures by Thomas Zuber, M.D. This article, on punch biopsy, includes convenient office forms (see pages 1161, 1162 and 1164) and a patient information handout (see page 1167).

• Practical Therapeutics. This series comprises comprehensive, state-of-the-art reviews of the management of common clinical conditions. Articles are submitted by various family medicine departments or residencies and are coordinated by guest editors. This issue's cover article on smoking cessation, by Robert Mallin, M.D., is part of a series from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston (see page 1107).

• Problem-Oriented Diagnosis. Articles in this series focus on methods of diagnosing specific conditions. Articles are submitted by various family medicine departments or residencies and are coordinated by guest editors.

• Radiologic Decision-Making. Articles address the radiologic features of various medical disorders and the decision-making process for radiologic studies. This series is coordinated by Mark Meyer, M.D., University of Kansas School of Medicine, and Walter Forred, M.D., University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine.

Adding to this list are two new article series that will debut later this year:

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine. These updates will explore topics in complementary and alternative medicine and include a look at the evidence.

• Dermatology. Contributors from the Utah Valley Family Practice Residency, Provo, have prepared updates on commonly encountered skin problems.