One of the possible subdivisions in the category of scientific books is that between horizontal books, which deal with a wide range of issues in an extensive way, without going deeply into all its parts, and vertical books, which delve into a narrow topic.

Nuclear Medicine Manual on Gynaecological Cancers and Other Female Malignancies is a publication that aims to deepen the role of nuclear medicine in gynecological oncology, including in this context also the study of the breast. This is therefore an original publication, probably without major competitors in literature, because it deals with a category of neoplasms united by a narrow specialist interest, which does not find, with the exception of the breast, the necessary in-depth study space in more generalist books.

Structured as a manual of 103 pages, enriched by many very effective and didactic illustrations, almost all in color, and accompanied by an extensive and updated bibliography, the book is organized in the following chapters: (1) breast cancer; (2) vulvar cancer; (3) cervical cancer; (4) endometrial cancer; and (5) ovarian cancer.

For all of them, starting from the knowledge of the most relevant anatomical, physiopathological, clinical, and technical information, it is presented the state of the art and the current clinical role of radioisotopic procedures.

A major issue is represented by radioguided techniques, including not only the detection of the sentinel node, either at mammary level or in other locations, but also radioguided occult lesion localization (ROLL), radioguided seed localization (RSL), and targeted lymph node biopsy. The sentinel node technique is also reported as a hybrid approach, using radioactivity and fluorescence.

The interest of the book is also connected to the extensive, rigorous, and in-depth evaluation of infrequently applied methods, as the sentinel node detection in patients with vulvar, cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. Similarly, it is critically evaluated the role of PET-FDG in gynecological tumors, including breast cancer, and the technical improvement allowed by advanced tools such as positron emission mammography (PEM), molecular breast imaging with gamma emitters, freehand SPECT, and portable gamma cameras. A brief analysis of PET radiotracers beyond FDG is also present.

The hope is that the demonstration of their clinical interest could stimulate the activation of multicenter trials, able to identify a possible role in the diagnostic process, in an area in which it is very difficult to acquire statistically significant numerical data to be applied in the context of evidence based medicine.

Mainly intended for residents and practitioners in Nuclear Medicine, the book may be of great interest also for specialists in Gynaecology, as well as for residents and other professionals interested in the field.