IASLC Thoracic Oncology, 2nd Edition
ISBN: 9780323523578
Pub Date: 6/20/17
Reviewed by: Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD (City of Hope)
Description
This interdisciplinary and up-to-date compendium of best approaches to lung cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up is an impressive scholarly work published on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Although the first edition was published just a few years ago (2014), an explosion of information since then motivated the authors to bring out this second edition, which represents updates of more than half of the material.
Purpose
IASLC embodies expertise at every level including basic science, clinical, translational, and interdisciplinary research. Thus, the main purpose of the IASLC and the editors was to provide reliable and up-to-date information from the experts in lung cancer. These are definitely very worthy objectives that will be welcomed by everyone in the field. The book exceeds the objectives set forth by the editors.
Audience
In addition to clinicians with expertise in thoracic oncology, the book will serve well physicians and basic research scientists interested in lung cancer biology, radiation oncology, surgery, and epidemiology, as well as respiratory physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and those involved in social work and advocacy.
Features
The book is organized so that relevant information is available in discrete but related sections that make for smooth transitions without overlap. In all, the book embodies 13 sections that cover a range of topics starting from epidemiology, molecular mechanisms, immunology, pathology, and radiology to radiotherapeutics, surgery, chemotherapy and its complications, and, finally, clinical trials and advocacy. Thus, an interested reader can directly access the relevant information without having to read the chapters that either precede or follow the information sought. A very nice feature is a colored box at the beginning of each chapter called “Summary of Key Points” that succinctly summarizes the entire chapter in just a few bullet points. Each chapter is written by leading experts from around the world, providing a global perspective of the latest developments in lung cancer. The illustrations and display items are impressive and the bibliography at the end of each chapter is adequate and current. In addition, the authors provide a link to Expertconsult.com for full list of references for the discerning readers of this book.
Assessment
Overall, this is an outstanding resource that everyone interested in this subject must have. There is not much out there to compare. There are some books that are really old (>10 years) and among the more recent ones, perhaps Handbook of Lung Cancer and other Thoracic Malignancies Kalemkerian et al. (Demos Medical Publishing, 2017), and the forthcoming Modern Thoracic Oncology, Cameron et al. (World Scientific Publishing, 2018) may be competing books. However, the main objective of this book and the well-thought-out content sets it apart from any other book in the same space.
Doody’s Review Service Weighted Numerical Score: 98 – 5 Stars!
Great book