Pharmacologic Principles of Cancer Treatment

Dr Chabner has edited an excellent text. His objective was "to provide a comprehensive and detailed examination of the preclinical and clinical pharmacology of the anti-neoplastic drugs." He has accomplished his objective. However, the detail and sophistication of the presentations will limit his readers to the most serious students of this aspect of medical oncology. The book is divided into two sections. The first deals with the role of neoplastic drugs, chemical and cellular pharmokinetics, cell kinetics, and the late complications of chemotherapy. The second discusses specific drugs or classes of drugs. Although there is not a set pattern for each chapter that explores a drug or class of drugs, the author usually covers chemistry, mechanism of action, cellular pharmacology and metabolism, pharmokinetics, drug interactions, and toxicity of that particular agent or class of agents. Clinical studies when mentioned are kept to a whisper. The 21 chapters cover 445 pages