The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7284 p131
31 January 2004

An excellent source: useful in any hospital treating cancer patients

‘Practical chemotherapy: a multidisciplinary guide’, by Maxwell Summerhayes and Susanna Daniels. Pp 398. Price £40. London: Radcliffe Medical Press Ltd; 2003. ISBN 1 85775 965 6

This book contains a series of monographs dealing with chemotherapy regimens. Each monograph is split into nine sections: usual indications, doses, administration, anti-emetics, cycle length, number of cycles, side effects, blood nadirs and take-home drug requirements.

Following this are three sections consisting of notes for prescribers, pharmacists and nurses. The information in the three sections does overlap and sometimes information for the prescribers may be useful for the pharmacists and nurses.

In addition to the monographs there are guidelines on dose adjustments of cytotoxics in renal and hepatic failure. The monographs are clearly laid out and provide the information as an adjunct to the standard information sources.

The advice for prescribers, pharmacists and nurses is practical and written in an accessible style that forewarns the user against some of the practical pitfalls that can occur with such regimens, for example, planning the timing of outpatient visits to attach and detach pumps.

Although the book does not replace experience and expertise it describes the issues that should be addressed in the manner of a mentor. The book is not comprehensive and does not replace mentorship, but does not claim to do so. It is, however, an excellent source of accessible, well written, clear information that is grounded very much in the clinical setting.

As an addition to training of pharmacy staff this is an excellent source and would be a book that would be useful in any hospital treating cancer patients.

Helen Taylor

Helen Taylor is oncology pharmacist at the Whittington Hospital, London