Hematology-Oncology Therapy is a well-organized text book that covers almost 500 treatment regimens for many malignant diseases in a stringent, concise, and logical way. For each disease, epidemiology, pathology, work-up, staging, survival, caveats and distinct regimens are discussed and original citations provided. At almost 900 pages, Hematology-Oncology Therapy gives an overview of numerous chemotherapy regimens in hematology-oncology and also includes a chapter on supportive therapy that is provided in a script-like form. Most authors are affiliated at the NIH, and accordingly the selection of regimens included follow the local recommendations, although an effort is made to include the most frequently applied schemata.

Hematology-Oncology Therapy is organized alphabetically according to malignant disorder; however, as no additional index is provided, the reader may have some difficulty in finding 'cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer' under B (biliary tract cancer), or 'hairy cell leukemia' under L (leukemia). Even more confusingly, myeloproliferative diseases are not discussed together; instead, chronic myeloid leukemia is listed under L (leukemia) whereas polycythemia vera and essential thrombocytopenia are included in section III, which discusses selected hematologic diseases. The structure of this section in particular is somewhat confusing. In addition to frequent and rarer coagulation diseases, myelodysplastic syndromes are discussed separately from myeloid leukemias, despite the fact that these preleukemic diseases frequently transform into overt leukemia.

As it is the case for most text books written by multiple authors, the style and extent of detail provided in each chapter is different. Hence, for one of the most frequent diseases such as cancer of unknown primary (CUP), only two chemotherapy regimens are listed, whereas more than 20 different schemata are mentioned in the section on metastatic breast cancer and more than five regimens are discussed for the rather rare disease gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, although no further details or recommendations are given. By contrast, none of the recently published molecular-targeted approaches for hepatocellular carcinoma are mentioned. Some of the chapters are, therefore, quite comprehensive, but others lack standard approaches or consist of an overwhelming number of different regimens. Specifically, a short guideline for the less experienced reader, like the excellent therapeutic flow sheet in malignant lymphoma, is missing from most of the chapters. Some of the literature referred to by the authors of this book is outdated, and often does not reflect a reasonable and balanced discussion of the expected results. This section of the book may, therefore, be a major source of information only for the exact dose and time schedule of numerous chemotherapy regimens.

In an excellent practically oriented approach, section II—on supportive care, drug preparation, complications, and screening—summarizes the most important aspects of supportive therapy. Specifically, there are very instructive tables that compare the dosing and efficacy of various 5HT3 receptor antagonists, antibiotics and pain killers; however, specific clinical indications (e.g. of hematological growth factors) are missing. This chapter also includes highly specialized recommendations for follow-up after hematopoetic stem-cell transplantation, which somewhat extents the likely suitable audience for this chapter to nonexpert doctors and nurses. Other chapters are organized in a more text book character.

To summarize, this book takes on the enormous challenge of providing an overview of the most frequently applied chemotherapeutical regimens in hematology-oncology. As a balanced discussion of therapeutic guidelines is missing, this book would not be a suitable substitute for one of the standard text books, but could be of complement in clinical practice. Hematology-Oncology Therapy may, therefore, be most helpful for nurses and pharmacists who require a quick reference of dose and time schedule for distinct regimens. In contrast, the section on supportive care has a very practical focus, and addresses questions that are frequently asked in daily clinics, many of which are only partially covered by other medical text books. An index would strengthen the value of this book; however, the authors should be congratulated for their attempt to provide a short and stringent overview of a huge number of different chemotherapy regimens. To conclude, Hematology-Oncology Therapy is a useful complement to standard text books and internet-based resources (like www.uptodate.com) that cover practical aspects of chemotherapy.