Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer

Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer, edited by Martin Lipkin and Robert Good, is a valuable addition to the medical and surgical literature. Individual chapters are contributed by distinguished scientists and clinicians who, with the editors, are to be congratulated on the clarity of presentation and consistency of literary style of the volume as a whole. Figures, tables, and graphs are illustrative and appropriate throughout and the bibliographies are superb. Early chapters discuss cellular organization and immunology of the GI tract. The experimental basis for our contemporary understanding of these principles is thoroughly discussed and extensively referenced. With this background, subsequent chapters dealing with immunologic phenomena and cancer are extremely informative. Of great interest is the chapter on atrophic gastritis, pernicious anemia, and malignancy; immunologic investigation of patients with these disorders is beginning to clarify etiology and natural history of this confusing group of clinical problems. A chapter on Alpha Chain disease describes its origins as an aberrant immune response to environmental antigen and supports the current theory that early treatment with antibiotics may prevent transformation of the hyperplastic process to the late neoplastic form identified as Mediterranean lymphoma. Several chapters deal exhaustively with epidemiologic aspects of GI cancer. A large proportion of the volume deals with colorectal cancer, reflecting the prominence of this particular GI malignancy in our society. Theories of carcinogenesis are reviewed in the context of naturally occurring human disorders such as familial polyposis and adenomatous polyps and through critical evaluation of a number of experimental models. A major section is devoted to clinical aspects of colorectal cancer with emphasis on new diagnostic methods as well as on treatment modalities. An excellent chapter on "The Skin and GI Malignancy" by Marks and Shuster is an illuminating discussion of these relationships for the non-dermatologist. Finally, the last section outlines the present and future directions for therapy of colorectal cancer.