Endometrial Cancer

as in most other diseases, are so highly orientated, the availability of a text which traverses the boundaries of the various disciplines is to be welcomed. The volume has the additional advantage of extensive bibliographies after each article. It is thus an excellent work of reference, as well as an up-to-date account of the status of breast cancer research. With advances in cancer treatments, particularly cytotoxic combinations, the prognosis in several tumours has improved considerably over the past decade. Not unexpectedly , this has in some instances led to increased toxicity, particularly in opportunis-tic infections. These are readily amenable to appropriate treatment, and can be resolved satisfactorily if the clinician is alert to the problem and instigates the correct therapy. This book therefore comes at an opportune time and presents an up-to-date review of important aspects in the management of infection in the patient with cancer. The first section deals with general topics, in particular those factors that predispose to infection, and adequate coverage is given to aetiology and problems concerned with diagnosis. The second section deals with clinical and diagnostic aspects, and detailed coverage is given to the important opportun-istic infections due to fungi-and parasites. The final section is devoted to treatment, and adequate discussion is given here to current antibiotic policy. I think, however, that it would have given added credence to the book if more space had been devoted to supportive care. It is, however, a book that is to be recommended to all those concerned in the clinical management of cancer patients. At £15.80 it is probably beyond the reach of junior staff, but should be present in all relevant libraries. Forty-five papers gathered into 8 sections are republished without any of the attendant discussions or editorial summaries that one might have expected. The papers range from general reviews to individual scientific studies of widely varying size and complexity. The general introductions and discussions within the papers contain an extensive amount of overlapping information which, while complete within the context of the paper, is tedious if papers are read sequentially. The 8 sections cover the whole range of the relatively neglected field of endo-metrial carcinoma, with those on epidemiology , long-term oestrogen therapy, clinical treatment and experimental endocrinology occupying the bulk of the book. Looking at the individual papers, in the first section there is an excellent review by Mack of the validity of the different …

as in most other diseases, are so highly orientated, the availability of a text which traverses the boundaries of the various disciplines is to be welcomed. The volume has the additional advantage of extensive bibliographies after each article. It is thus an excellent work of reference, as well as an upto-date account of the status of breast cancer research.
M With advances in cancer treatments, particularly cytotoxic combinations, the prognosis in several tumours has improved considerably over the past decade. Not unexpectedly, this has in some instances led to increased toxicity, particularly in opportunistic infections. These are readily amenable to appropriate treatment, and can be resolved satisfactorily if the clinician is alert to the problem and instigates the correct therapy. This book therefore comes at an opportune time and presents an up-to-date review of important aspects in the management of infection in the patient with cancer.
The first section deals with general topics, in particular those factors that predispose to infection, and adequate coverage is given to aetiology and problems concerned with diagnosis. The second section deals with clinical and diagnostic aspects, and detailed coverage is given to the important opportunistic infections due to fungi-and parasites. The final section is devoted to treatment, and adequate discussion is given here to current antibiotic policy. I think, however, that it would have given added credence to the book if more space had been devoted to supportive care. It is, however, a book that is to be recommended to all those concerned in the clinical management of cancer patients. At £15.80 it is probably beyond the reach of junior staff, but should be present in all relevant libraries. This is not a text book, but the collected papers presented at the Second International Conference on Endometrial Cancer in May 1977. Forty-five papers gathered into 8 sections are republished without any of the attendant discussions or editorial summaries that one might have expected. The papers range from general reviews to individual scientific studies of widely varying size and complexity. The general introductions and discussions within the papers contain an extensive amount of overlapping information which, while complete within the context of the paper, is tedious if papers are read sequentially. The 8 sections cover the whole range of the relatively neglected field of endometrial carcinoma, with those on epidemiology, long-term oestrogen therapy, clinical treatment and experimental endocrinology occupying the bulk of the book.
Looking at the individual papers, in the first section there is an excellent review by Mack of the validity of the different arguments surrounding oestrogen therapy and the possible changing incidence of the disease.
The second section, on the relationship of oestrogens and carcinoma, opens with a balanced review of the problem by Lauritzen. His rules for long-term oestrogen therapy are impressive for their simplicity and common sense. The section then strays away from malignant disease to good papers by Sturdee and Whitehead, detailing the uterine mucosal response to different oestrogen therapies. The unpredictability of this response and the need for sequential analysis of endometrial tissue emerges clearly.
Ober's Recent Ideas on the Pathology of Endometrial Carcinoma opens the pathology section. The clarity of style produces an authoritative view of this difficult field, which must not be missed by any clinically orientated reader.
The long section on Clinical Treatment includes papers discussing the extent of primary surgery, the relative values of pre-and postoperative radiotherapy, adjuvant progestogens in early disease and progestogens in late and recurrent disease. All the results presented come from clinical studies which seek to answer questions that can only be answered by randomized clinical trials. The points of view are well presented and cogently argued, but their long-term value is very limited. In later papers Kohorn does clearly define the place of progestogens in established disease, and MacDonald outlines the type of prospective study that will have to be done to answer the fundamental questions of clinical management.
The Endocrinology section has 11 individual scientific papers exploring different fundamental aspects of hormone-receptor research in this disease. The context and detail appears quite out of proportion to that in the other sections. Hutton's authoritative account of oestrogen metabolism in the postmenopausal woman restores the clinical balance of the endocrinology section.
The penultimate section on tissue culture gives an insight into the formidable problems still facing the cell biologist attempting to investigate cells of endometrial origin, and leads to a final section on New Approaches that offers the promise of chemotherapy and tumour markers common to so many solid tumours, but still much unrealized.
There are articles and ideas from this conference of interest and value to anyone involved in the problem of endometrial cancer, but this book will only be of value if approached very selectively.

R. D. HUNTER
The Radiobiology of Human Cancer Radiotherapy (2nd Edn). J. R. ANDREWS. University Park Press, Baltimore. 591 pp. $39.50. This is a comprehensive and profusely illustrated examination of the voluminous literature on radiobiology applicable to radiotherapy. It forms a text book as well as a reference volume. The subject matter is well-delineated into many physical and biological chapters, and these are intermingled to link different sections and ideas. The chapter lengths vary strikingly-from 2 pages for each of several chapters, to up to 50 pages for others. This reflects the varied amount of information available between subjects, and the author's preference for emphasis under the title of this book.
All radiobiological topics relevant to radiotherapy are covered, including new ideas such as hyperthermia, and a statement of contents is hardly necessary here. New radiobiologists will welcome the references to early review articles in almost every section of the book, and over 1,000 references are quoted. The depth of coverage in certain sections has been greatly increased over the first edition, e.g. in "cancer immunology" and "optimization in radiotherapy". This edition remains suitable for medical graduates reading for qualifications in radiotherapy and oncology, although the level at which the exposition is pitched inevitably varies (e.g. in the chapter on "cell populations"). The concern throughout for clinical relevance and limitations is revealed in such ways as commentaries on ethics (e.g. the use of multiple biopsies in kinetic studies) and in discussion of the approximations and uncertainties inherent in formulations of the NSD or CRE type. This is a very comprehensive production, complete with prologue, epilogue, and a useful glossary of terms for the uninitiated. The inclusion of a chapter on "Human cancer radiotherapy and its implications for radiobiology" serves to remind working radiobiologists of some of the current problems that clinicians face, and of the need for appropriate models and approaches.
J This book contains the proceedings of INSERM Symposium No. 8, held in Montpellier, France in March 1978. The symposium covered a very broad field, concerned primarily with subpopulations of lymphocytes in relation to lymphocyte development and lymphoid malignancies. The contributions are in the form of short research papers, with over 50 papers in a book of only 420 pages. The papers are in 7 sections, but the grouping is somewhat arbitrary; in many cases papers on similar topics appear in different sections.
The introductory section deals with animal systems for the study of T and B lymphocytes and stem cells, that may be applicable to human studies. This is followed by papers on the properties of human T and B lymphocytes, including several papers on the identification of T-cell subsets by a number of experimental procedures. One section of the book is devoted to the identity and properties of null cells, and contains papers on the K and NK