Walter & Miller s Textbook of Radiotherapy: Radiation Physics, Therapy and Oncology
£64.87
Concise, easy to read and up to date - This book is part of the recommended text for clinical oncology training specialising in delivering therapeutic radiotherapy to patients which forms part of the FRCR compulsory exams. It is also a very good textbook for medical physicists, technicians and radiographers as well. This 6th edition had been updated and reflect actual practical radiotherapy treatment in the United Kingdom. The book has 2 parts. Part 1 encompasses the theory and practical side of radiation physics which have gone through major changes in the past 10 years since the last edition was published 10 years ago. This part of the book is well written, concise and enables the reader to understand the basic of the rationale behind radiotherapy from the first atom to the development of linear accelerator and the details of brachytherapy. There is also a section of radiation protection and diagnostic radiology for completion. The second part of the book focused on different cancer sites and seek to look in depth not only at the role of radiotherapy but the use of diagnostic tools, staging and the use of other systemic treatment with chemotherapy and hormonal treatment.However, the book lacks quotation of important clinical trials references or indexes of which treatments were based upon. The information provided are accurate and the authors have clearly defined in the beginning of the book that there will be a range of different practices between different cancer centres in the dosage and technical planning of the radiotherapy and hence all treatments should be checked in accordance to national and local agreed guidelines and protocol. In summary, this concise textbook of radiotherapy is one of the best in the market and reflects clinical practice of radiotherapy in the United Kingdom. It is easy to read, succinct, accurate and will be the standard text of radiotherapy. The only drawback is the lack of cross references to source data from important clinical trials that have been the main backbone of evidence based medicine today. However, if this book should incorporate these references, it would need to expand the text by 50% judging from the wide aspects of the topics. Hence, the omission is likely to be deliberate and should be used with other standard oncology textbooks.Highly recommended and good value for money.