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Barbara D. Alexander, Infections in Cancer Patients Edited by John N. Greene New York: Marcel Dekker, 2004. 534 pp., illustrated. $179.95 (cloth), Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 40, Issue 4, 15 February 2005, Pages 640–641, https://doi.org/10.1086/427419
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As noted in the preface, this book attempts a novel approach to assessment of the risk of infection, one based on the type of underlying malignancy and specific cancer treatment administered. This is in contrast to the more traditional approach, which assesses the risk of infection on the basis of the virulence of and epidemiologic factors associated with individual pathogens.
The book is divided into 7 sections. It begins with a broad overview of mechanisms of host defense, followed by a review of the normal microbial flora. The second section includes 10 chapters focusing on immune defects specific to different hematologic and lymphoreticular malignancies, including acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, hairy-cell leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, as well as immunosuppression following stem cell transplantation. The section that follows deals with solid-tumor malignancies and is broken into 11 chapters based on the primary organ or body system giving rise to the cancer. For instance, the first chapter of the section details risks for infections in patients with brain tumors; the second, patients with head and neck cancer; the third, patients with lung cancer; and so on.
