- Email: [email protected]
Clinical neurology: Cerebral gliomas
72
Book ret:icu.~
unusual chapter on notable people with ALS also focuses on American politicians and sportsmen. The approach to trache0tomy and mechanical ventilation is more active than generally practised in the UK, but perhaps books such as this will be influential in changing practice. Overviews of recent scientific advances including neuropathology and pharmacology are given. These are sufficient for the purposes of a clinical book, but will not satisfy those seeking reviews of current research. For example, the neuropathology chapter refers only to 'recently identified' chromosome 21 linkage in familial ALS. SOD-1 mutations are mentioned elsewhere in the book. Discussions of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) do not refer to the recently identified SMN and NAIP mutations. The later sections deal comprehensively with all aspects of the management of ALS including nutritional, respiratory, mobility, communication and psychological support. This book would have a place in the multi-disciplinary ALS clinic where it would be a useful 'handbook' for members of the care and management team. Physicians who feel they have little to offer their patients with ALS could learn much from the positive attitude of this book to a comprehensive range of diagnostic and management opportunities. Richard W. Orrell Charing Cross Hospital, London
of growth factors and tumour suppressor genes and the importance of angiogenesis raise possibilities of exciting new approaches to inhibiting development of gliomas. For the clinician, there are excellent chapters on dilemmas in the management of low grade gliomas and a thoughtful analytic review of the evidence of controlled trials with respect to radiation therapy, maximum surgical resection and chemotherapy in malignant glioma. The chapter on chemotherapy highlights the chemosensitive nature of malignant oligodendrogliomas and the need for histological confirmation of gliomas in order to direct appropriate treatment, lmmunotherapy and gene therapy promise much, but have yet to have an impact on survival in this, as yet, incurable condition. The need for recording quality of life in cerebral glioma is accepted, as treatment becomes increasingly intensive and extended survival brings long term serious side effects. The challenges of trying to measure quality of life in children and adults is dealt with in the last chapter, although I was surprised to see that there was no mention of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core Questionnaire with the brain tumour module. This is a concise text which is easy to read and provides a well referenced current bibliography. I would recommend this book to the interested neurologist, neurosurgeon and oncologist who deal with patients with malignant glioma. It is well worth its UK price of £30. Robert Grant Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
P//S0960-8966(96)00407-5
Clinical Neurology: Cerebral Gliomas Edited by W.K.A. Yung. Published 1996 by Bailliere Tindall. ISBN 0-7020-2074-5, 445 pp. Price £30. This is a concise well written and well referenced text by an internationally recognised group of experts each dealing with their own subspecialty interest in neurooncology. There are ten short chapters which will update the reader from epidemiology through pathology, molecular genetics, growth factors, standard forms of radiation and chemotherapy, right up to the more experimental immuno-therapies and gene therapy. The last chapter concentrates on quality of life issues which are becoming an increasingly important aspect of treatment of malignant gliomas. I was particularly impressed with the section on epidemiology which critically examines environmental and life style risk factors and the pitfalls in trying to do epidemiological studies in a relatively uncommon condition. The pathology section deals with the importance of classifying cerebral gliomas and the proliferative markers. The molecular genetic section is concisely summarised in a very short but authoritative chapter and the relevance
Pll
S0960-8966(96)00408-7
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Edited by Wilfred J/inig and Robert F. Schmidt. Published 1992 by VCH Publishing. ISBN 3-527-15496-5, 306 pp. Price £65. The Editors assert in their preface to this published symposium that "reflex sympathetic dystrophy is probably an inappropriate name, since it expresses a preconception about the generation of the syndrome that may finally turn out to be wrong". Blumberg provides a careful description of the clinical entity as we know it, and the first 60 pages of the book outline the constellation of features acute onset, often after trauma, with pain, skin temperature changes and swelling of the part affected, giving way to stiffness, weakness, tremor and later trophic changes--without advancing anything new to explain the syndrome. The time course of the autonomic disturbances, and the prognosis, are discussed without enlightenment. Subsequent sections deal with experimental aspects of the somatosensory system, the sympathetic nervous
Book ret:icu.~
unusual chapter on notable people with ALS also focuses on American politicians and sportsmen. The approach to trache0tomy and mechanical ventilation is more active than generally practised in the UK, but perhaps books such as this will be influential in changing practice. Overviews of recent scientific advances including neuropathology and pharmacology are given. These are sufficient for the purposes of a clinical book, but will not satisfy those seeking reviews of current research. For example, the neuropathology chapter refers only to 'recently identified' chromosome 21 linkage in familial ALS. SOD-1 mutations are mentioned elsewhere in the book. Discussions of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) do not refer to the recently identified SMN and NAIP mutations. The later sections deal comprehensively with all aspects of the management of ALS including nutritional, respiratory, mobility, communication and psychological support. This book would have a place in the multi-disciplinary ALS clinic where it would be a useful 'handbook' for members of the care and management team. Physicians who feel they have little to offer their patients with ALS could learn much from the positive attitude of this book to a comprehensive range of diagnostic and management opportunities. Richard W. Orrell Charing Cross Hospital, London
of growth factors and tumour suppressor genes and the importance of angiogenesis raise possibilities of exciting new approaches to inhibiting development of gliomas. For the clinician, there are excellent chapters on dilemmas in the management of low grade gliomas and a thoughtful analytic review of the evidence of controlled trials with respect to radiation therapy, maximum surgical resection and chemotherapy in malignant glioma. The chapter on chemotherapy highlights the chemosensitive nature of malignant oligodendrogliomas and the need for histological confirmation of gliomas in order to direct appropriate treatment, lmmunotherapy and gene therapy promise much, but have yet to have an impact on survival in this, as yet, incurable condition. The need for recording quality of life in cerebral glioma is accepted, as treatment becomes increasingly intensive and extended survival brings long term serious side effects. The challenges of trying to measure quality of life in children and adults is dealt with in the last chapter, although I was surprised to see that there was no mention of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core Questionnaire with the brain tumour module. This is a concise text which is easy to read and provides a well referenced current bibliography. I would recommend this book to the interested neurologist, neurosurgeon and oncologist who deal with patients with malignant glioma. It is well worth its UK price of £30. Robert Grant Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
P//S0960-8966(96)00407-5
Clinical Neurology: Cerebral Gliomas Edited by W.K.A. Yung. Published 1996 by Bailliere Tindall. ISBN 0-7020-2074-5, 445 pp. Price £30. This is a concise well written and well referenced text by an internationally recognised group of experts each dealing with their own subspecialty interest in neurooncology. There are ten short chapters which will update the reader from epidemiology through pathology, molecular genetics, growth factors, standard forms of radiation and chemotherapy, right up to the more experimental immuno-therapies and gene therapy. The last chapter concentrates on quality of life issues which are becoming an increasingly important aspect of treatment of malignant gliomas. I was particularly impressed with the section on epidemiology which critically examines environmental and life style risk factors and the pitfalls in trying to do epidemiological studies in a relatively uncommon condition. The pathology section deals with the importance of classifying cerebral gliomas and the proliferative markers. The molecular genetic section is concisely summarised in a very short but authoritative chapter and the relevance
Pll
S0960-8966(96)00408-7
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Edited by Wilfred J/inig and Robert F. Schmidt. Published 1992 by VCH Publishing. ISBN 3-527-15496-5, 306 pp. Price £65. The Editors assert in their preface to this published symposium that "reflex sympathetic dystrophy is probably an inappropriate name, since it expresses a preconception about the generation of the syndrome that may finally turn out to be wrong". Blumberg provides a careful description of the clinical entity as we know it, and the first 60 pages of the book outline the constellation of features acute onset, often after trauma, with pain, skin temperature changes and swelling of the part affected, giving way to stiffness, weakness, tremor and later trophic changes--without advancing anything new to explain the syndrome. The time course of the autonomic disturbances, and the prognosis, are discussed without enlightenment. Subsequent sections deal with experimental aspects of the somatosensory system, the sympathetic nervous