Abstract
This fascicle is the third in a distinguished series of publications by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology that is aimed at surgical pathologists and serves as a usable and informative reference on soft tissue tumors in humans. It is an exhaustive compilation of descriptive text and photographs whose goal is to “promote a consistent, unified, and biologically sound nomenclature; to guide the sugical pathologist in the diagnosis of the various tumors and tumor-like lesions; and to provide relevant histogenetic, pathogenetic, and clinicopathologic information on these entities.” A short introduction covers the philosophy behind nomenclature and classification and contains numerous helpful tables on scientific categories of soft tissue tumors, common pattern recognition parameters, managerial disease categories, and grading systems. What follows is a highly detailed description of tumors, divided by phenotypic classification, with innumerable color photographs. These tumors are further subdivided by their managerial class, the authors' terminology for the tumor's predicted degree of malignancy. They propose managerial categories Ia–IV, with I being clinically benign, II intermediate, and III and IV clinically sarcoma. Similar fascicles have been recently produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) for human and veterinary soft tissue tumors, and each of these has a similar division of tumors into the benign, intermediate, and malignant categories. However, the WHO did not attempt to devise a numbered category scheme such as “managerial class” nor do I believe such a scheme is necessary. That criticism aside, this publication is far more extensive and detailed than its previous editions and the recent WHO fascicles. The descriptions are well written, and the expertise and experience of the authors is apparent. Photographs are generally of excellent quality. The format and index make searching easy. Surgical pathologists, both veterinary and medical, and their residents would be well served having this reference in their libraries.