Oncology for Palliative Medicine (Oxford Medical Publications)

Consultants and nurses in palliative medicine who do not have a background in oncology need to know about the different types of cancer to be able to deal with palliation in these patients. The new edition of this popular book continues to provide comprehensive coverage of cancer management aimed at palliative care professionals. The opening chapters describe the principles that lie behind surgical, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments for cancer. Further chapters look in detail at different cancers, their aetiology, pathology and management pathways. The book goes on to consider the effects of advanced or metastatic cancer at various sites in the body, with emphasis on the pathophysiology of symptoms and the key factors that may influence treatment decisions. This book will help the reader to identify opportunities for active palliative care and focuses on the problems of recurrent and advanced cancer, discussing the key factors that may influence treatment decisions. To aid understanding in the specialty, the format of the book has been thoroughly revised to include numerous tables, figures, algorithms, case histories and key points to ensure that it will prove an invaluable, practical guide to oncology for all health care professionals involed in the care of patients with malignant disease. Doody Review Services Reviewer: Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD(Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) Description: This unique book attempts to summarize contemporary cancer treatment when the therapeutic goals are to provide palliative care rather than to cure the malignancy. Purpose: There are growing numbers of physicians practicing primarily in the developing field of palliative medicine -- the treatment of patients for whom the prognosis is limited and the focus of care is on quality of life. This book is written to inform those physicians, as well as students of the field, about the pertinent aspects of oncology. The field is most developed in the United Kingdom. Hence, this book is written primarily with a British audience in mind. However, the field is growing in the U.S. and elsewhere and the objectives are as important there as well. Audience: Physicians practicing palliative medicine and students of the field are the audience for the book. Although the authors will not be widely recognized in the U.S., the subject matter and focus of the book are unique. Features: Although there could perhaps have been more tables summarizing various diseases and their management, the book is attractive and well-referenced. It is written with a consistent style and point of view, which makes the book highly readable. Assessment: There is a parochial and pedantic quality to the writing that only the British seem to be able to achieve. Nevertheless, it is an important contribution to the reference literature for those physicians practicing hospice and palliative medicine. Particularly for those physicians who trained ingeneral practice, I would think a book like this would be indispensable. After all, these physicians really are the final ""gatekeepers."" They need to know when appropriate anticancer therapies are likely to be useful or have been inappropriately omitted for patients with cancer who are under their care. Consultants and nurses in palliative medicine who do not have a background in oncology need to know about the different types of cancer to be able to deal with palliation in these patients. The new edition of this popular book continues to provide comprehensive coverage of cancer management aimed at palliative care professionals. The opening chapters describe the principles that lie behind surgical, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments for cancer. Further chapters look in detail at different cancers, their aetiology, pathology and management pathways. The book goes on to consider the effects of advanced or metastatic cancer at various sites in the body, with emphasis on the pathophysiology of symptoms and the key factors that may influence treatment decisions. This book will help the reader to identify opportunities for active palliative care and focuses on the problems of recurrent and advanced cancer, discussing the key factors that may influence treatment decisions. To aid understanding in the specialty, the format of the book has been thoroughly revised to include numerous tables, figures, algorithms, case histories and key points to ensure that it will prove an invaluable, practical guide to oncology for all health care professionals involed in the care of patients with malignant disease. "The new edition of this popular book continues to provide comprehensive coverage of cancer management aimed at palliative care professionals. The opening chapters describe the principles that lied behind surgical, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments for cancer. Further chapters look in details at different cancers, their aetiology, pathology, and management pathways. The book goes on to consider the effects of advanced or metastatic cancer at various sites in the body, with emphasis on the pathophysiology of symptoms and the key factors that may influence treatment decisions. This book will help the reader to identify opportunities for active palliative care and focuses on the problems of recurrent and advanced cancer, discussing the key factors that may influence treatment decisions." "To aid understanding in the specialty, the format of the book has been thoroughly revised to include numerous tables, figures, algorithms, case histories, and key points to ensure that it will prove an invaluable, practical guide to oncology for all health care professional involved in the care of patients with malignant disease."--BOOK JACKET This is an established text covering the basics of cancer for palliative specialists. To aid understanding in the specialty the format of the book has been revised to include numerous tables, figures, algorithms, case histories and key points to ensure that it will prove an invaluable, practical guide