What This Book Actually Is
The Handbook of Cancer Chemotherapy is a reference book published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins as part of their Handbook Series. It covers chemotherapy drug regimens, dosing calculations, side effect management, and protocol guidelines for oncology clinicians. It is not a textbook. It is a quick-reference tool designed to be pulled down from a shelf or grabbed off a cart during rounds. I have used this book extensively throughout my career. It is one of those resources that sits on a nurse's station desk or in a pocket bag because you need it at 2 AM when a chemo order needs verification and you do not have time to search through five different databases.
Handbook Of Cancer Chemotherapy Lippincott Williams And Wilkins Handbook Series
This is the full title and publisher designation. The book has been through multiple editions over the years. Each edition updates drug information, adds new agents, and revises dosing guidelines based on current clinical evidence. The most recent editions focus heavily on targeted therapies and immunotherapy agents alongside traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy. The book is organized by cancer type. Each disease site gets its own chapter with standard treatment protocols listed in table format. You will find first-line regimens, second-line options, dose modifications for renal or hepatic impairment, and supportive care recommendations all in one place.
How to Use It Effectively
The way most people use this handbook is wrong. They treat it like a textbook and try to read it cover to cover. That is not what it is for. You open it to the relevant cancer chapter when you have a specific clinical question. The information is presented in tables. Look at the table. Find the drug. Check the dose. Move on. One thing the handbook does well is list dose adjustments. If a patient has creatinine clearance of 35 mL per minute and you are considering carboplatin, the book gives you the Calvert formula and often includes a pre-calculated table. I once had a attending who insisted on manually recalculating every single carboplatin dose for renally impaired patients instead of trusting the table. He spent twenty minutes on each calculation. I learned to just use the book's table and flag anything that looked unusual. Saved me hours over a typical month of clinic sessions. Another practical feature is the side effect management section. Each drug or regimen usually has a brief paragraph on expected toxicities and how to manage them. This is not detailed pharmacology. It is the practical stuff like "give ondansetron 8 mg IV prior to administration" or "monitor CBC weekly during treatment."
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Common Pitfalls
The biggest problem with this handbook is that it becomes outdated. Drug approvals change. Dosing guidelines get revised. New support medications enter the market. If you are using an older edition, some of the information may no longer be current. I once caught a discrepancy where an older edition listed a drug combination that had been taken off the market due to safety concerns. The newer edition corrected it, but the error was still floating around in some institutions that had not updated their references. Always check the publication date of your edition. If it is more than three or four years old, you should cross-reference with a current source like UpToDate or the NCCN Guidelines before relying on any specific dosing recommendation. The handbook is a starting point, not the final word. Another issue is that the handbook does not cover every cancer type or every regimen. If you are working with a rare malignancy or an off-label use of a drug, you will need to look elsewhere. The book covers the common solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. That is it. Do not expect it to have everything.
What Makes It Worth Having
The handbook's value comes from its conciseness. You can find the information you need in under a minute. A full drug monograph might take you five minutes to read through. This book gives you the essential facts in thirty seconds. For busy clinicians who are making real-time treatment decisions, that speed matters. The formatting is consistent across chapters. Tables are structured the same way. Once you learn how to navigate the layout, you can find what you need quickly. The drug names are listed alphabetically within each regimen table. Doses are given in mg per square meter or mg per kilogram depending on the drug. Some regimens include cycle length and number of cycles. For pharmacy students and residents, this book is useful for learning the standard regimens. It gives you a framework. Once you understand the common protocols, you can build on that knowledge with more detailed resources. I used it extensively during my residency to prepare for pharmacotherapy rotations. It helped me understand why certain drugs are combined and what the expected outcomes are.
Alternatives
If you find the handbook too brief for your needs, there are more comprehensive references available. The DeVita Hellman and Rosenberg's Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology is a full textbook that covers chemotherapy in far more depth. The M.D. Anderson Manual of Medical Oncology is another good option that provides more detailed discussion of treatment rationale and evidence behind each regimen. For pure dosing calculations, some people prefer the Harriet Lane Handbook or the Pediatric Dosage Handbook if they work in pediatric oncology. These books focus more on the calculation aspect and less on the clinical context. Online resources like Lexicomp, Micromedex, and UpToDate provide continuously updated drug information with alerts for interactions and contraindications. These are useful complements to the handbook but are not as portable. You need a device and often a subscription to access them.
Where to Get It
The Handbook of Cancer Chemotherapy by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins is available through most major online retailers and academic bookstores. The current edition can typically be found on the publisher's website or through platforms like Amazon. Used copies are often available at a lower price, but be careful about the edition date as mentioned earlier. Many hospital libraries keep a copy on reserve. If you are a student or resident, check with your institution's library before purchasing. You may be able to access it through their digital collection if they have an institutional subscription. The price varies depending on the edition and format. A new hardcover copy usually runs between sixty and one hundred dollars. The digital version, if available, may be slightly cheaper. Consider whether you need the print version for quick reference or if a digital copy on your tablet would be sufficient for your workflow.
