Within an area that already has a magnitude of published materials Pete Bridge & David J. Tipper have attempted to tap a niche in the market with a CT anatomy book for the Therapeutic Radiographer. The book is now in its second additional with this edition having additional focus on CT safety, contrast and methods of minimising artefacts.
Within a profession where technology continues to drive radiotherapy treatments forward, producing tighter margins, treating less normal tissues and therefore being able to hyper-fractionate sites; the role of the Therapeutic Radiographer has seen a shift from that of dexterity and manipulation, used for conventional ‘four field brick’ techniques, to that of highly precise Intensity Modulated Arc Therapies (IMAT). Plans produced create extremely steep dose gradients, increasing the importance of geometric accuracies as PTV volumes decrease to maintain the required therapeutic ratio. Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) is now seen as standard practice, focusing on both pre-treatment CT scans and treatment verification via Cone Beam CT scans. For those radiographers who wish to advance within their roles, anatomical knowledge is crucial and allows clinical decision to be made with sound judgment. Pete and David have shown great collaborative teamwork to make this book easy to follow with each self contained chapter naturally following on from the previous.
Unlike previous anatomy books, this starts with a nice overview of the imaging modalities used within, giving enough physics knowledge to make it palatable for the reader without turning it into a physics textbook. There is also welcomed humour from the author, which adds personality and keeps the reader engaged. Each progressive chapter is laid out in a similar format making it highly navigable. Information on the musculoskeletal system is specific to Radiotherapy; focussing on core essential information without over complicating it due to the rarity of either of them being primary targets or organs at risk. The book highlights difficulties people may have when contouring. Again this is nice and different from books of a similar area.
The systems within each main area of the body are then discussed. Like before the focus on Radiotherapy remains with descriptions of potential alignment issues of organs due to their nature and movement of such organs. The information is similar to a typical Gray’s Anatomy style textbook, but the abstract version, not making the book solely physiological. Illustrations of the nodal areas, showing potential spread of cancer, are welcomed and this highlights to the readers how nodal chains can be contoured using the venous system and their location. There remains focus through each section on contouring and localisation that will help both student and professional to develop their skills. The chapters then close with detailed contoured transverse slices with numbered anatomy for reference followed by assessment of learning via self-test questions. The images are beneficial and can be used for reference.
This book stands alone with no other competition in the form of a Radiotherapy CT anatomy textbook and for students who are familiar with both the ECLIPSETM planning system and VERTTM the images will have a common appearance. Academically, this stands out and will hopefully make students feel more comfortable and able to meet the challenges of the modern Radiotherapy department. Thus, helping to increase memory recall techniques and as well as a three-dimensional image to develop skills from. The book also preforms well with keeping up to date with trends in Radiotherapy producing detailed descriptions of the contouring used in many of today’s trials.
The authors of this book have set out to create an anatomy book that focuses on ‘Radiotherapy’ specific anatomy it is therefore surprising to see that they have chosen to use patients on a curved couch. As previously stated the use of images throughout is generally of a high level however the female CT transvers slices are poor quality especially when compared to the males. A similar windowing level used for both would have been better. A lack of attention to detail is also seen within the first chapter. Tables seem to have been screen dumped into the book with both poor image quality/focus and on some the typical redline that highlights a spelling mistake (Conebeam) has been left on. For a book that retails at £65 I would expect better editing.
This book should not be confused for either a Gray’s Anatomy textbook or a Pocket Atlas. The book covers core fundamental anatomy knowledge that can be seen as essential knowledge for Therapy Radiographers, looking at both pre-treatment and treatment verification. The aim of the book stated in the preface is met and this book should be considered for both the student and professional as it covers areas that will suit both. After the initial editing issues that the book had on its first print (missing / duplicate images) I am disappointed to see that they have not learnt from their mistakes and I struggle to overlook the lack of attention in the formatting of the first chapter. However, this said, it should not put anyone off from purchasing the book. In the future when you look at any typical Therapeutic Radiographers’ book case I would expect to see Walter & Miller’s textbook of Radiotherapy, Practical Radiotherapy Planning and Pete and David’s CT Anatomy for Radiotherapy.
