This book makes no claim to be a textbook of paediatric oncology. As the editors say in the introduction, insufficient information is available at present for such a project; what they have set out to do is to give an up to date clinical and patho logical account of the common, and some of the rarer, tumours of childhood; to define the special problems they present; and to make constructive suggestions for their better management. We believe that this book will be of interest not only to clinicians and pathologists but to all who are seriously concerned about the unsolved problems of neoplasia. The material is derived mainly from the work of the Manchester Children's Tumour Registry. This was started in 1953 in the University Departments of Child Health and Pathology, with Dr. STEWARD as Registrar in Charge, subsequently holding the appointments of lecturer and, presently, senior lecturer in paediatric oncology in the two departments. The Registry now has records of more than 1,400 cases. Periodic reviews of these cases have brought to light the deficiencies in management and shown the urgent need for a nation-wide attack on the problem if improvements in prognosis are to be made possible. The need for team work, both in research and treatment, is rightly emphasised by the editors. Already close links have been forged between paediatricians, paediatric surgeons, radiotherapists and pathologists in the North of England for the freer interchange of views and greater uniformity in treatment.
