Human Cell Culture, Vol. 2 Book

This series provides the first complete guide to the culture of human cells. It is a detailed manual and reference resource for researchers in every aspect of medicine, biology, technology and immunology using human cells. Every chapter is written by an internationally recognised authority in the field.
Cancer Cell Lines, Volumes 1-3: These 3 volumes provide a comprehensive text on the culture of established cell lines from every type of human cancer. They provide a basic manual and reference resource for every cancer research scientist using human cancer cells.

Alvin Telser

This is Volume II, Part 2, of a three volume set that contains an extensive listing of human cancer cells that have been placed into culture. Some of these cell cultures have produced widely studied cell lines, such as HeLa cells. Volume II, Part 1 had chapters 1-16; this Volume has chapters 17-34. The editors state that the series is intended as a guide to the hundreds of human cancer cells that have been placed in culture. The chapters are grouped according to their anatomic/organ sites of tumor origin. These volumes are essentially a catalogue of all these cells. Some chapters are extensive; others are less so, but on balance the editors' intentions are fulfilled. The audience for this series is researchers who are growing or plan to grow tissue culture cells from human tumors. There is little information of interest to a broader audience. The authors of each chapter are experts on the specific cell cultures discussed in that chapter. Each chapter contains a list, usually in the form of a long table, of the cells and cell lines from that tumor type that have been placed in culture. There is no index; this is a significant shortcoming. There is a brief description of the techniques used to place the cells in culture, karyotype them, analyze them by molecular genetic techniques, and whether or not some of the cell lines are contaminated by other cell lines or by mycoplasma. The references at the end of each chapter lack uniformity; in some chapters only the first author of each reference is named; none of the references have the titles of the referenced paper. Furthermore, some of the reference lists are alphabetical while others are numbered. This book would be of interestto a very limited audience, and one willing to pay $215 at that. There is very little critical information or discussion of subject matter in any of the chapters. This volume may be useful to only to researchers actively engaged in culturing cells derived from human tumors; so it may be added to their collections.