Tumours of Lymphoid Tissue

TUMOURS of Iymphoid tissue can provide some of the most difficult problems in diagnosis for the surgical pathologist. The difficulty is often not only classification but the recognition of tumours from the varied responses of lymphoid tissue to various disease stimu,li. Many pathologists will, therefore, welcome a monograph, which is based on a review of 410 cases seen at the Westminster Hospital between 1940 and 1952, with a three-year follow-up of 293 and a five-year follow-up of 222 of these. The classification adopted is relatively free from the complexities of terminology applied with apparent relish by some who have written on this subject. The analysis of the careful follow-up is alone a valuable and informative record, and the clinician may find the book of value in assessing the course and prognosis in different disorders. All pathologists will learn something from this book. Some may think the author underestimates the difficulties and pitfalls of diagnosis, and that the reactive changes in lymphoid tissue, and in particular the simulation of Hodgkin's disease by lipomelanic reticulosis and other non-neoplastic conditions, are inadequately discussed. For a subject which has engaged for so long the attention of many eminent pathologists the discussion of the literature, while it cites most of the important papers, is scarcely as detailed as might be expected in a monograph on a relatively restricted subject. The author's material and his interpretation certainly merit a fairly detailed presentation. The large number of illustrations show much tedious repetition and many are of little or no value to anyone with even slight experience. Some may doubt if their presence, and the relatively brief discussion of this highly specialised subject, really justifies monographic presentation instead of a briefer discussion of the author's own data in a specialised journal. ' J: E. M.