Book reviews

VOLUME 17 NUMBER 2 MARCH/APRIL 2004

Progress in Hematologic Oncology:

Progress in Hematologic Oncology. Lalit Kumar (ed). The Advanced Research Foundation, New York, 2003. 234 pp, Rs 250.

Haematology–Oncology has made tremendous progress in the past decade, with many conditions becoming treatable and probably curable. There is a paucity of data in the literature on the incidence and presentation of haematological malignancies in India, compared to western countries. This has probably had an impact on the management of these conditions in India. This book attempts to cover these aspects of haematological oncology.

The authors have collected data from many centres across the country. The chapters on acute leukaemia are well written with a synopsis of the recent trends in diagnosis. The management of infections is also well summarized. The revolutionary achievement in the field of haematology–oncology in the past decade has undoubtedly been the discovery of imatinib mesylate. The chapters on chronic myeloid leukaemia explain the molecular biology and the mechanism of action of imatinib in the treatment of this disease. It is encouraging to have such targeted molecular therapy in malignancies, which have minimal side-effects and yet are directed at the genetic level. Stem cell transplantation and modulation of natural killer cells have been addressed and make for easy understanding of a complex subject.

However, the book has some lacunae. The title states that it is a book on progress. This would include recent trends in management, results of recently published trials, products in the pipeline, newer drugs being developed with novel mechanisms of action and, of course, the molecular and genetic aspects of diagnosis, prognosis and management. The chapter on acute myeloid leukaemia should have contained information on treatment with all-trans retinoic acid, arsenic and anti-CD33 antibody. Other targeted molecular therapies, which have also come up in the past decade, such as rituximab, now a widely accepted modality of therapy, also deserve attention.

Other haematological malignancies, such as chronic lymphoid leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, have been omitted. Many chapters give retrospective analyses, and include data and experience over the past few years, and are not in keeping with the theme and title of the book. Some references date back to the 1950s and 1970s, which are not recent and much of that information would be available in a textbook.

The potential readers of this book would be postgraduate students and doctors studying or practising haematological oncology. They would certainly benefit from this book as regards the incidence, presentation and variations in treatment compared to western data. Since this is a fast-developing field, the book would score upon textbooks if the advances are updated regularly.