Field of medicine: Oncology.

Format: Hardcover book.

Audience: Cancer researchers and clinicians who wish to review topics outside their areas of expertise. Several chapters might interest a general medicine audience.

Purpose: This collection of essays is the first of an annual series designed to "present succinct, high-level, up-to-date information on the many specialties involved in the care of cancer patients." The emphasis is on publishing advances more quickly than might be possible with a textbook.

Content: The book is organized into five parts, which cover cytotoxic therapy, immunology, radiotherapy, clinical management, and chemoprevention of malignancy. It takes a topical approach to several types of cancer, such as colorectal, breast, head and neck, and lung cancer and melanoma. In many sections, the basic science underlying a given therapeutic approach is reviewed.

Highlights: Several essays are co-authored by recognized authorities, such as Susan Arbuck (camptothecins) and Scott Lippman (chemoprevention of aerodigestive cancer). These chapters are sufficiently complete to function as concise but definitive reviews, as are the chapters on adjuvant therapy of colorectal cancer and the biochemotherapy of melanoma.

Limitations: The choice and treatment of some topics (such as preventing mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of anticancer drugs, molecular and cellular responses of the brain to radiotherapy, oral cancers, and precancerous lesions) can be unclear or idiosyncratic. Some chapters, despite the book's stated goal, emphasize a historical approach and do not discuss the latest advances (for example, in radiochemotherapy in head and neck cancer and medical management of advanced colon cancer). The book is easy to read and has many useful tables, but the few black-and-white photographs are of poor quality.

Context: Although the book aims to be more timely and succinct than oncology textbooks, most of the essays repeat what one might find in standard references. The annual Important Advances in Oncology (Lippincott-Raven) and the monthly supplements to Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology (Lippincott-Raven, 1997) also provide up-to-date reviews of important oncologic topics but are more complete. However, Progress in Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy may be more useful for those who do not regularly deal with the topics reviewed.

Reviewer: Gerhson Y. Locker, MD, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois.