¹Roger Williams Medical Center Providence, Rhode Island

This book makes a good argument in favor of single authorship for atlases. The Atlas of Breast Pathology takes the form usually reserved for textbooks in which a different individual authors each chapter. The result is an uneven effort in which some of the chapters provide a coherent summary of the topic (such as the chapter on infiltrating duct carcinoma, not otherwise specified), while others display a compendium of sub-optimal photographs (such as the chapter on normal anatomy and physiologic changes). That being said, the atlas does appear to include the full range of breast pathology, including inflammatory, benign, and malignant histology. Notable features include a chapter on radiologic techniques and core needle biopsy that effectively juxtaposes mammographic and histologic findings, an interesting chapter on iatrogenic lesions of the breast such as those caused by prostheses, and an expertly annotated chapter authored by Dr. Silverberg himself on infiltrating carcinomas other than infiltrating duct carcinomas not otherwise specified. The most outstanding portion of the atlas is the superb chapter on fine needle aspiration cytology authored by Dr. Shahla Masood, who organizes the chapter such that several related entities are presented on a single page for convenient comparison. She also presents the features of the most common diagnoses in list form for easy reference. Overall, The Atlas of Breast Pathology serves as a useful supplement to more general textbooks on the pathologist's reference shelf.