Brown R, Boger-Brown U, eds. ($89.00.) Humana Press, 1999. ISBN 0 896 036030 0.

Cancer chemotherapy is not working, or at least it is not working as well as one would like. More often than not, intrinsic or acquired resistance of tumour cells to cytotoxic drugs renders such treatment ineffective. This book aims to equip those involved in basic and “translational” research with a repertoire of experimental approaches to this problem of anticancer drug resistance. The extent of the problem and the practical difficulties associated with using patients who have cancer as an “experimental system” are set out in an excellent opening chapter by Alan Anthoney and Stanley Kaye. This clinical perspective seemed fairly familiar, however, and I was more attracted by the remainder of the book, which is essentially a collection of laboratory protocols. These cover a wide range …