Field of medicine: Oncology and cancer biology.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Medical and graduate students, scientists involved in cancer research, and physicians seeking a clear understanding of cancer biology and contemporary cancer therapy.

Purpose: To introduce the principles of cancer biology and clinical oncology.

Content: This primer presents the major biological and clinical features of cancer in an organized, brief, and focused manner. In its short span of 269 pages, it offers a surprisingly well-integrated and cogent survey of the field. An introductory chapter on how tumors are identified and classified is followed by chapters on the causes of cancer, the genetic basis of cancer, cell proliferation and cell death, tumor assessment, and treatment. The book closes with a substantial, useful glossary of words, terms, and procedures used in cancer biology, cellular and molecular biology, and cancer treatment.

Highlights: Chapters 3, 4, and 5 merit special comment. Chapter 3 presents, in a well-developed narrative, the key concepts that underlie the genetic basis of cancer. Wherever possible, the application or utility of a method of basic molecular biology to clinical oncology is emphasized. Examples include the use of the polymerase chain reaction to detect residual chronic myelogenous leukemia after treatment and the value of the clonogenic assay in screening for cytotoxic drugs that can eradicate a patient's tumor stem cells, presented in chapter 4. Chapter 5, on cell proliferation and cell death, focuses on the impressive progress that has been made in our understanding of cell cycle kinetics, growth factors and their receptors, and cell signaling and apoptosis in normal and cancer cells. Many carefully selected and highly informative diagrams, graphs, and tables amplify and complement the text.

Limitations: Although most of the photoµgraphs are of good to excellent quality, some are dark and not well reproduced.

Context: Because the acquisition of new knowledge in cancer biology and genetics has been rapid and sustained, this book can be compared only with those published within the past 2 years. Two similar texts, Molecular Basis of Oncology, edited by Freireich and Stoss from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (1995), and Cancer Biology, by Ruddon from the Eppley Cancer Center (1995), are of comparable scope but are significantly larger books. Both present the topics in greater depth but with a lower ratio of supporting illustrations and tables to text.

Reviewer: Dante G. Scarpelli, MD, PhD, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois.