Forty years ago, one of the great teachers and clinicians in cancer care, Dr Juan del Regato, said, "Even if there are no further breakthroughs in cancer therapy, we have enough practical problems to last a lifetime." From that day to this, concerned clinicians have been nibbling around the edges of the cancer problem, developing techniques and approaches that incrementally cure and palliate many patients who could not be helped a generation ago. In the world of radiation oncology, there is much less morbidity now than there was then.
The book at hand gives us a look at how far we've come and limns the many elements in cancer care. The emphasis is on radiation oncology, but the perspective is balanced. Broad principles are enunciated with enough treatment detail so that the reader will grasp what is up-to-date, but not so much in the way of detailed recipes that will