Grossbard ML:

American Cancer Society Atlas of Clinical Oncology: Malignant Lymphomas, 468 pp, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, B.C. Decker Inc., 2001 (4149.00).

This is a multi-authored book published in a series sponsored by the American Cancer Society. It deals with the recent advances in the pathology, epidemiology, molecular biology, clinical presentations, and management of malignant lymphomas. Clinical aspects of lymphoma diagnosis and therapeutics form the backbone of the book, but adequate space is reserved for the discussion of pathology and molecular biology and other facets of neoplastic diseases of the lymphopoietic system.

This book is aimed primarily at clinical oncologists in general and oncologic hematologists in particular. Topics such as staging of lymphomas and Hodgkin disease, prognostic factors, chemotherapy, transplantation, and radiation therapy as well as immunotherapy are dealt with in detail. Recommendations for treatment are based on contributors’ personal experiences supported by data from recent literature. The text is supplemented with numerous summary tables and graphs illustrating the treatment outcomes. The references are up-to date and many are from 2000 and even 2001.

The pathologic features of various lymphomas are illustrated in color photographs. Many of these photographs are of substandard quality and essentially uninterpretable, which is a pity. A CD-ROM containing the entire text and all of the pictures is included with the book, but the illustrations on the disc are not any better than those in the book.

Like the other books in this ACS series, this book will be used mostly by clinicians. Nevertheless, pathologists interested in lymphomas and Hodgkin disease also will find enough valuable material between its covers.