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Clinical cancer chemotherapy
EUROP. J. OBSTET. GYNEC. REPROD. BIOL., 1976,6/6,
359-364.
EXCERPTA
MEDICA
Book reviews Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy
attempt to tight the battle on his own field alone. Everybody involved in the treatment and care of a cancer patient should agree to a plan for the selection of a primary therapy regimen adapted to this patient and later on for secondary and tertiary regimens. To stimulate teamwork and to help the clinicians to find their way in the enormous amount of confusing data, this book may appear to be a valuable aid.
E.M. Greenspan (ed.) Raven Press New York, 1975 (xvii + 414 pp., 73 Figs., 77 Tables) US$22.This volume, has been brought out by Dr. Greenspan and his co-authors on account of their clinical and experimental experience, is aimed to provide a background for the clinical use of the existing drugs and to afford some guide to the current claims for the newer agents or combinations. The authors hope “to provide cues and guidelines” that may help practicing physicians all over the world “to achieve the significant worthwile palliation, albeit transient, obtainable now among a growing list of neoplasms effectively suppressed by modern chemotherapy.” The book carries information on different aspects of chemotherapy such as data on sequential and cyclic dosage, on the choice of combinations of drugs, on cross-resistance between agents, and on the predictive criteria for individual dose adjustment. Gynecologists may find the chapters on ovarian cancer and on gestational trophoblastic neoplasms particularly interesting. Immunochemotherapy gets attention in one of the last chapters of the book, written by Baker and Taub. Immunotherapy has enjoyed a tremendous revival and broad publicity in recent years. Its role could be a favorable one as an adjuvant to chemotherapy and it should be used “after a reduction of the tumor load by chemotherapy or before a large internal tumor load develops”. After reading this book one major conclusion springs to mind: modern chemotherapy calls for modern teamwork. The current knowledge of tumor resistance to drugs and of the antitumor spectrum of drugs is expanding rapidly. No oncologist should
J.G. Stolk, Nijmegen
Human Chromosomes S. Makino North-Holland Publishing Comp., New York, 1975 (xxi + 600 pp., 6 Figs., 71 Tables) US$62.25; Dfl. 145.-
Amsterdam-
Sajiro Makino is one of the best known of the Japanese cytogeneticists. He retired from a professorship at the Hikkado University in 1970 after contributing 45 years to the study of chromosomes. The book has eleven chapters which cover a range of topics, e.g. methodology, nomenclature, meiosis, congenital disorders, virus infection, irradiation, and neoplasia. There is an interesting account of the events leading to the rediscovery of the human karyotype in 1956 in the first chapter. In most of the other chapters there is vast coverage of the meticulous work which has been carried out by the Japanese workers and which is not easily available to workers in the west. The chapter on irradiation includes a detailed account of studies done on survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on fishermen exposed to radioactive fall-out in Bikini. The chapter on neoplasia is particularly informative. However, there are a few criticisms to make. Some 359
359-364.
EXCERPTA
MEDICA
Book reviews Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy
attempt to tight the battle on his own field alone. Everybody involved in the treatment and care of a cancer patient should agree to a plan for the selection of a primary therapy regimen adapted to this patient and later on for secondary and tertiary regimens. To stimulate teamwork and to help the clinicians to find their way in the enormous amount of confusing data, this book may appear to be a valuable aid.
E.M. Greenspan (ed.) Raven Press New York, 1975 (xvii + 414 pp., 73 Figs., 77 Tables) US$22.This volume, has been brought out by Dr. Greenspan and his co-authors on account of their clinical and experimental experience, is aimed to provide a background for the clinical use of the existing drugs and to afford some guide to the current claims for the newer agents or combinations. The authors hope “to provide cues and guidelines” that may help practicing physicians all over the world “to achieve the significant worthwile palliation, albeit transient, obtainable now among a growing list of neoplasms effectively suppressed by modern chemotherapy.” The book carries information on different aspects of chemotherapy such as data on sequential and cyclic dosage, on the choice of combinations of drugs, on cross-resistance between agents, and on the predictive criteria for individual dose adjustment. Gynecologists may find the chapters on ovarian cancer and on gestational trophoblastic neoplasms particularly interesting. Immunochemotherapy gets attention in one of the last chapters of the book, written by Baker and Taub. Immunotherapy has enjoyed a tremendous revival and broad publicity in recent years. Its role could be a favorable one as an adjuvant to chemotherapy and it should be used “after a reduction of the tumor load by chemotherapy or before a large internal tumor load develops”. After reading this book one major conclusion springs to mind: modern chemotherapy calls for modern teamwork. The current knowledge of tumor resistance to drugs and of the antitumor spectrum of drugs is expanding rapidly. No oncologist should
J.G. Stolk, Nijmegen
Human Chromosomes S. Makino North-Holland Publishing Comp., New York, 1975 (xxi + 600 pp., 6 Figs., 71 Tables) US$62.25; Dfl. 145.-
Amsterdam-
Sajiro Makino is one of the best known of the Japanese cytogeneticists. He retired from a professorship at the Hikkado University in 1970 after contributing 45 years to the study of chromosomes. The book has eleven chapters which cover a range of topics, e.g. methodology, nomenclature, meiosis, congenital disorders, virus infection, irradiation, and neoplasia. There is an interesting account of the events leading to the rediscovery of the human karyotype in 1956 in the first chapter. In most of the other chapters there is vast coverage of the meticulous work which has been carried out by the Japanese workers and which is not easily available to workers in the west. The chapter on irradiation includes a detailed account of studies done on survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on fishermen exposed to radioactive fall-out in Bikini. The chapter on neoplasia is particularly informative. However, there are a few criticisms to make. Some 359