This is a concise and complete look at cancer in infancy and childhood and at 1368 pages, is not bedtime reading.
There are 34 chapters divided into five sections. Section I, ‘The Biology of Cancer’, includes epidemiology of leukaemia, angiogenesis, molecular basis of human malignancy, targeted approaches to drug development and cytogenetics, and molecular pathology of paediatric cancer. Section II, titled ‘Pediatric Cancer Therapeutics,’ discusses treatment modalities. Section III, ‘Haematologic Malignancy’, discusses the leukaemias and lymphomas with an excellent chapter on infantile leukaemia. Section IV, ‘Solid Tumours’, includes all of the solid tumours that are related to paediatrics. Section V, ‘Supportive Care’, contains excellent information on oncological emergencies, symptom management, palliative care and a great chapter on childhood cancer survivorship. This chapter is really appropriate for all clinicians who care for paediatric patients with cancer. There is a plethora of information on late effects of both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It discusses the future direction of the treatment of the child with cancer and also specific testing that may be available to identify the child that may be at high risk for late effects.
This book is appropriate for the expert paediatric oncologist, trainees and nursing and allied health staff. From a nursing perspective, I found this book had great information regarding the cancer diseases, had a fantastic collection of diagnostic imaging and a very concise and up to date chapter on the nursing care required to give holistic care to these patients and their families. There is also a very good chapter on the topical issue of childhood cancer survivorship. There are excellent slide shows with most chapters demonstrating the indicated disease.
This book is well referenced, with one 52 page chapter having 748 references. Of the 92 contributors, 58 were from the the Dana-Farber, Boston or the Children’s Hospital, Boston. The rest of the contributors were from North America, except one contributor from Ireland.
This is an excellent reference book for all clinicians caring for the child with cancer. It is concise, yet loaded with great information. I would recommend this book to anyone with a strong desire to learn about oncology of infancy and childhood.