In the 23 years since recognition of oncology as a specialty by the American Board of Internal Medicine and publication of the venerable Holland and Frei textbook of oncology, at least three comprehensive texts have appeared (De Vita, now in its fourth edition, Calabresi, and Moossa, on average 1000 pages shorter and in their second editions). To these may be added a major textbook focused on cancer treatment (Haskell, in a just released fourth edition), Fischer, Ackerman, and Horton (the last two out of print), plus a half-dozen handbooks and innumerable monographs devoted to narrower aspects of cancer medicine— more than enough to satisfy the most avid oncologic bibliophile.
It might be fairly asked why anyone would introduce a new major textbook of oncology. Even with active programs of research, education, and treatment in every modern nation, each of the above mentioned texts was published in the United States. The