Clinical Radiation Pathology II. (töredék) [antikvár]

Foreword The gap between basic studies of the biologic effects of radiation and the gross clinical manifestations of radiation is still great. There is no lack of work at the cellular level nor of attempts to extrapolate findings from cellular radio-biology toward the higher levels of biological organization, but there is most certainly a lack of an equivalent effort at the tissue level. The analysis of clinical radiation data in terms of the response of tissue systems is a most important but largely unexplored field, and the present volume by Dr. Rubin and Dr. Casarett sets out to satisfy the need. In doing so it achieves an analysis that will be equally useful to the clinical radiologist seeking a broadening of biological perspectives and to the experimental radiobiologist interested in a realistic application of laboratory data. The authors have made a very comprehensive presentation of clinical data, and the literature has been searched to provide as much information as possible on the dose responses of normal and malignant tissue, but the heart of the book is to attempt to express clinical observations in terms of the dynamics of cell populations. No one recognizes better than the authors the great lack of quantitative information on cell proliferation and other dynamic characteristics of the various cell populations of the body, but by means of reasonably broad classifications and generalizations they illustrate how the problems can be approached and the profit that must derive from increased understanding in the general field of cell population dynamics. One consequence of this treatment of the subject is that radiation effects are considered in the general context of tissue response to injury. This is a most desirable development; too often in the past have radiation effects been considered only as a special result of a special type of biological damage. The progress of radiotherapy, alone and in combination with other forms of therapy, demands a less insular approach. It would have been difficult to find a better combination of authors to write this book —a clinical radiologist of wide experience who at the same time has a deep interest in experimental studies and a pathologist who for many years has concerned himself with various aspects of radiation work. They have achieved balance in a subject where it is only too easy to lose perspective, and they have provided a valuable book of reference. Of even greater significance they point the direction for future work and study. Professor L. F. Lamerton Department of Biophysics Royal Cancer Hospital Sutton, Surrey, England