Recent Advances in Cancer Treatment ed. by H. J. Tagnon and M. J. Staquet (review)

of little matter to him. But his most fervent positions are clearly based on his firm belief in a supreme intelligence or wisdom and the sacredness of human life. He is certain that it is both irreverant and unwise to tinker with the nucleus—of the atom, as well as of the cell. Most of Chargaffs professional life was spent at Columbia University, where he rose to the rank of professor and head of one of the country's strongest departments ofbiochemistry. From his early postgraduate days onward, he was a productive researcher and prolific reporter and writer. His work on nucleic acids, which was begun during the mid-1940s, was probably his most important scientific contribution. He formulated the concept of complimentarity or base pairing in DNA. As is now well recognized, this work was a most significant precursor to the Watson-Crick double-stranded helical model of DNA. As recognition for his outstanding research accomplishment, Chargaff has received many honors—memberships in the National Academy of Science, winner of the President's Science Medal, honorary degrees, visiting professorships, etc. So why, one may ask, is Chargaff so sad and angry? Readers ofHeraclitean Fire will not agree on the basis of explanation for some of Chargaffs positions, but they certainly will have been provoked by some of the best writing by a modern scientist to be published. He scolds post-World War II science (biology in particular) for its bigness and its loss of perspective. He deplores the growing importance of fashions in science, the trend to more and more specialization, the excessive emphasis on applications of science, the willingness of scientists to lend themselves and their work to destructive purposes and potentially amoral activities. He devalues the double-stranded helix and its discoverers. He laments America's depreciation of the contributions that could be made by senior scholars if the system were to encourage rather than to discourage their interaction with the younger generation of academicians. Chargaffs positions are effectively argued and generously peppered with pungent witticisms. It is thus likely that readers will be for or against his positions—seldom neutral. However, most will agree that Chargaff should be emulated as a model of a cultivated person. Richard L. Landau Department of Mediane University of Chicago Recent Advances in Cancer Treatment. Edited by H. J. Tagnon and M. J. Staquet. New York: Raven Press, 1977. Pp. 360. $26.00. This contribution, authored at a most appropriate time by Professors Tagnon and Staquet, represents a contribution principally to the multidisciplinary efforts in chemotherapy, with or without consideration of a specific basis of immunotherapy , of the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer. The authors are predominantly medical oncologists of great reputation, well known throughout the world and especially in the United States. Particular contributions dealing with some focal disease entities may well be of greater interest to some readers than to others. Information concerning the design of 458 Book Reviews clinical trials may be of general interest on a less-limited basis. The discussions of the clinical management of bladder cancer by the chairman of the National Bladder Cancer Organ Site Group, is, of course, noteworthy. One wishes that other sites could have been covered, but then again that may not reflect the current areas of interest of the editors-in-chief and their other associates and colleagues. Gerald P. Murphy Roswell Park Memorial Institute Buffalo, New York Growth Kinetics and Biochemical Regufotion ofNormal and Malignant Cells. Edited by B. Drewinko and R. M. Humphrey. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1977. Pp. xv +900. $45.95. This well-edited and handsome volume is composed of papers presented at the 29th Annual Symposium of Fundamental Cancer Research, covering most aspects ofour understanding today of the cell cycle and its possible manipulation in vitro and in vivo. Much of this knowledge has been accumulated during the last 2 decades, stimulated by the hope of applying such information to human cancer therapy. Divided into 10 main chapters, each made up of several related papers by outstanding scientists in each field from the United States and abroad, it is nevertheless a well-rounded book, offering a wealth of theoretical and technical information...