This handbook provides a practical, accessible guide to all emergency situations encountered in oncology. Patients with cancer are a unique challenge in healthcare, and present a wide range of emergencies for the healthcare professional to address. Emergencies in Oncology provides an easily accessible, evidence-based guide to the diagnosis and management of such acutely ill patients.
This book will provide health practitioners working with patients with cancer with a highly portable source of information. General practitioners, emergency department doctors, acute medical teams and specialist nurses will find this a resource.
One in three of the population of the UK will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, many of whom become acutely ill and require emergency treatment. Also, patients with undiagnosed cancer can present with oncological emergencies and therfore doctors in specialist oncology units, emergency departments and indeed almost any medical and surgical speciality need to be aware of the specific challenges presented by the acutely ill patient with cancer.
This book seeks to provide an easily accessible evdience based guide to the diagnosis and management of acutley ill patients with cancer. The scope of the book is limited to those emergencies directly caused by the cancer or by its treatment and those conditions where there is a strong predisposition caused by the cancer. Many of these emergencies will be familiar to non-oncologists, however others will not. Any delay caused by unfamiliarity can have disastrous results, for example irreversible neurological deficit in unrecognized spinal cord compression. Not all the emergencies covered in this book require immediate recognition and treatment to prevent potential fatal outcomes, however, all these conditions require urgent action to reduce morbidity and distressing symptoms for patients. The book therefore provides practical guidance on the management of the acute and distressing symptoms that often arise in the ill cancer patient.
