Abstract
When the first edition of Dabbs Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry was published in 2002, it became my favorite resource book of immunohistochemistry. The second edition has only strengthened its status. The format of this second edition has not changed substantially because Dr. Dabbs's original design had very little room for improvement. However, I agree with Dr. Hammar, author of chapter 11, when he indicates that since the first edition, significant information has accumulated in diagnostic immunohistochemistry; specificities and sensitivities of some markers have changed, and new highly sensitive markers have been developed. In addition, markers initially thought to be restricted to certain neoplasms are expressed in unrelated neoplasms; finally, some antibodies are now being used to determine the degree of differentiation of a neoplasm and as predictors of prognosis.
The chapters, with the exception of 1 and 2, are arranged mainly by systems. The Editor has assembled a group of internationally renowned pathologists with expertise in diagnostic immunohistochemistry. The first edition had 26 authors and this one 33 authors. Twenty of the authors returned for the second edition and 13 authors are new. Multiple-author books have the advantage of providing the unique expertise and experiences of their authors; however, redundant information is not uncommon throughout this book (each chapter is written to be a stand-alone work). Each chapter has an outline, an introduction, and a systemic approach to the diagnostic entities of that organ system. The “key diagnostic points” that made the first edition famous, have been improved in the second edition. As Dr. Dabbs mentions in his second edition preface, “each chapter includes a base of time-tested knowledge and more recent experience by an expert author”. The old/classic markers are discussed along with newer ones in a diagnostic setting. Although many new antibodies are not discussed, this absence is not the result of oversight. It is intentional in order to reserve space for proven diagnostic markers. Promising markers not included in this book will most likely have room in future editions.
The amount of information in this book has increased from 673 pages in the first edition to 828 in the second. From the 20 chapters of the first edition, the second edition has dropped two: cost effectiveness of immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry. The reason for eliminating these two chapters is not mentioned although cost effectiveness is a fairly nebulous topic that may not merit a chapter in such a book. Immunocytochemistry, on the other hand, is more commonly used; therefore, this chapter will surely be missed.
This book is primarily a review of diagnostic immunohistochemistry for neoplastic diseases although chapter 2 does a great job presenting up-to-date information pertaining to immunohistochemistry in infectious diseases, including emerging diseases. Chapter 7 on the approach to diagnose metastatic neoplasia is the best I have seen. The five-step approach is logical for human medicine although probably not very applicable in veterinary diagnostics. New to this edition (one of the deficiencies I noted in reviewing the first edition and still lacking in Taylor and Cote's Immunomicroscopy) is the presence in most chapters of a table indicating commonly used antibodies (e.g., maker, clone, antigen retrieval, dilution, and target cells/tissues) for a given system/organ. Additional tables comparing staining patterns of similar tumors and bar tables with percentages of staining of different markers for a particular tumor are common and support the text. This book lacks specific entries for tumor molecular markers, as opposed to Taylor and Cote's Immunomicroscopy book. Although molecular diagnostics is becoming very important in human pathology (and in its early stages in veterinary pathology), it is clearly beyond the scope of this book. There are excellent books on this subject in surgical pathology.
The quality of photographs (all in color) is in general excellent and some chapters have numerous. An exception is chapter 15, which has quite a few images with a greenish tinge in the background.
References are numerous and up-to-date. However, some chapters repeat the same reference several times due to inconsistency of format. More disappointing is that the first chapter on immunohistochemical techniques has not been updated. The authors (world authorities in this field) have not changed since the first edition, and it seems that they did not have the time or willingness to update their chapter. Nevertheless, this chapter is a must read. Chapters 8 and 15 have more than 25% of references corresponding to 2003 or later (from a total of 6,497 references in this book, about 16% of references were published in 2003 or later).
Is this a book of interest for veterinary pathologists or individuals doing immunohistochemistry in animal tissues? The answer is definitively yes. However, do not expect to be able to replicate results produced in human tissues due to the probable lack of cross-reactivity of many of these markers. Although this might appear to be frustrating (and many times is) this is what keeps me and others on the never ending search for the perfect antibody for animal species. If your laboratory could only afford one book on immunohistochemistry, this would be my choice.