Book Review

The Molecular Basis of Human Cancer

N Engl J Med 1994; 330:1163April 21, 1994

Article

The Molecular Basis of Human Cancer
Edited by Benjamin G. Neel and Ramesh Kumar. 491 pp., illustrated. Mt. Kisco, Futura, 1993. $95. Isbn 0-87993-554-5.

This excellent book, aimed at a general audience of clinical and laboratory professionals, contains 12 chapters by 14 young investigators active in the areas about which they write. The chapters are grouped according to classes of cancer-relevant genes for the most part, rather than according to organ site or disease category. The work is extremely well written, well produced, and filled with informative figures and tables. It is extensively referenced, with more than 1500 citations. Unfortunately, there are only occasional references from 1992, and none that I could find from 1993.

The potential reader should not be put off by the editors' effort to reach a general audience. This is a highly informative, serious work that provides specific information about the molecular biology of cancer in humans. The clear, concise, and exciting style of the writing makes it especially suitable for both a general audience and a more sophisticated readership.

An introductory chapter chronicles the discoveries that laid the foundation for understanding human cancer at the molecular level. It is followed by a chapter on tumor-suppressor genes in which the discussions of the retinoblastoma gene and the p53 gene are particularly intriguing. The discussion of retinoic acid receptors as tumor suppressors is fascinating as well. The next seven chapters concern various kinases, transforming growth factors, transcription factors, and other relevant subjects. Transgenic-mouse models of human cancer are expertly discussed in the next chapter, and the last two chapters encompass the molecular diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The discussions of gene therapy and ribozymes in the last chapter are particularly lucid.

This book will be excellent for undergraduate and graduate students in the clinical and laboratory medical sciences. Every academic oncologist and oncologist in training should be thoroughly familiar with the material here. The refreshingly lucid style and lack of redundancy of the multiauthored chapters are a tribute to the care with which the editors performed their task and will encourage the reader not only to read the book but also to study it. The clarity and precision of the writing and the authors' excitement about the subject deliver a simple message to the clinician: it is possible to understand this extremely complex and important material well enough to incorporate it into one's daily thinking about cancer and patients with cancer.

Peter H. Wiernik, M.D.
Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Bronx, NY 10467