The treatment of cancer is going through a phase of evolution and rapid progress. The last few years have seen 
a paradigm shift, and targeted therapy is now 
considered a cornerstone in cancer management. 
Despite this progress, cytotoxic chemotherapy plays 
a pivotal role in the medical management of various 
cancers. Cancer Chemotherapy and Biotherapy: 
Principles and Practice highlights the importance of 
this subject. 

This hard-back 5th edition, with fully searchable 
online text and image bank, should be considered as 
a useful source of reference, especially with regards 
to cytotoxic chemotherapy, for any medical library, 
in the vicinity of which cancer is treated, or cancer 
management taught and learnt. 

Section I deals with the basic principles of 
cancer treatment, including areas such as, drug 
discovery, development and marketing approval, 
In the present day setting of fierce competition 
amongst the pharmaceutical companies, this 
section provides guidelines as to how a molecule 
travels the journey from target identification to 
marketing and even post-marketing surveillance. 
Another important ‘innovation’ in this section is 
the chapter on “Pharamacogenomics”. With the 
rapidly evolving indications and guidelines, these 
drugs are being used increasingly commonly 
across the globe. Nevertheless, the vast majority 
of the clinical trials are still conducted in North 
America, Western Europe and Japan. However, 
there are important genetic differences in various 
ethnic groups resulting in differential responses and 
toxicities, and the chapter highlights this aspect of 
drug development and disposition. 

Section II deals in detail with the conventional 
cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents and it is this 
section which could serve as a repository. The 
drugs are classified according to their mechanism of 
action, and the chapters include not only a detailed 
discussion of the compounds, but are also replete 

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BOOK REVIEW

Cancer Chemotherapy and Biotherapy
Principles and Practice

Authors: Bruce A Chabner and Dan L Longo
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer: Lipincott Williams & Wilkins, 5th Edition, 2011

ISBN:  13: 978-1-60547-431-1 and 10: 1-60547-431-2

SQU Med J, August 2011, Vol. 11, Iss. 3, pp. 424-425, Epub. 15th Aug 11
Submitted - 16th May



Bruce A Chabner and Dan L Longo

Book Review | 425

with tables, figures and diagrammes. Some sections 
are supported by more than 600 references; this 
alone testifies to the amount of detailed research 
that has gone into some of the chapters. For quick 
reference, the table of “Key Features” of almost all 
the compounds discussed in this section provides 
useful information in a nutshell. 

Section III deals with the molecularly targeted 
therapies, referred to as ‘biotherapy’ in the title. 
Over the 160 pages of the section, compounds 
used regularly in routine clinical practice over the 
past dozen years are admixed with those still in the 
phase of investigation and phase III trials, such as 
the histone deacetylase inhibitors and some of the 
signalling inhibitors. Whereas this section provides 
details of the origins of the compounds, the rapidly 
evolving data in pivotal phase II and phase III trials 
over the past few years has made this information 
slightly outdated. Moreover, one would have liked to 
see more emphasis on compounds such as, imatinib 
mesylate, which changed the paradigm of treatment 
for cancer in 1999, to the extent that reputable 
journals indeed spoke about the ‘treatment of 
cancers in the imatinib era’, and rituximab which 
again changed the way lymphomas and many other 
benign and malignant conditions have been treated 
in the past decade. Also the section on conjugation 
of monoclonal antibodies with either immunotoxins 
or radiotherapy could have contained more details. 

Section IV deals with ‘immunologic agents’, 
including cytokines, vaccines, and adoptive cellular 
therapies. The chapter on cytokines is detailed, with 
results of some of the landmark clinical trials, which 
may or may not form the backbone of routine clinical 
practice these days, but nevertheless are considered 
important steps in the journey of advancing the 
treatment of cancer. The sections on vaccines and 
adoptive therapy are relatively short, even by the 
standards of the book, but do provide the essentials 
which underpin the use of such therapies. 

Section V deals with hormonal treatment of 
breast and prostate cancers. Although the two 
chapters explain the basis of use of several types of 
hormones/strategies, the rapid development and 
evolving data in the field means that the reader 
would be best advised to combine this section with 
the results of some of the recently concluded clinical 
trials in order to comprehend the overall picture in 
this form of cancer treatment. 

Section VI deals with "Supportive care". Whereas, 
chapters on pain management, haematopoietic 
growth factors, treatment of nausea and vomiting 
and bisphosphonates are comprehensive, one 
would have liked to see some of the other topics, 
such as, psycho-social care, treatment of anxiety 
and depression, fatigue, and the management of 
common side effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy 
and targeted therapies in a reference book of this 
size. 

Section VII deals with survivorship issues such 
as late effects of chemotherapy including infertility. 
The chapter on infertility summarises the results of 
salvage treatments to preserve/treat infertility, and 
provides the reader with some up-to-date results in 
the field. In this section, one would have liked to see 
something about chemoprevention, especially for 
those who are at high or very high risk of developing 
cancer. 

In summary, this is a useful reference book; 
however, in some areas, the information it provides 
should be combined with other rapidly evolving 
data in order to obtain a full picture of the exciting 
times of cancer treatment in which we live!

r e v i e w e r

Ikram Burney 
Department of Medicine, 
Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman 
Email: ikramburney@hotmail.com