IAHPC BOOK REVIEW

INNOVATIONS IN END-OF-LIFE CARE VOLUME 3

Practical Strategies &International Perspectives 

Anna L Romer, Karen S. Heller, David E. Weissman, Mildred Z. Solomon (eds)

Mary Ann Liebert, 2002 430 pp ISBN 0-913113-93-X RRP $US 55, £ N/A

This is the third edition of what has become a standard textbook regarding the management of patients with advanced cancer. The first change one notices is that Andrew Wilcock is included as a co-author, presumably indicating that he is to carry the considerable responsibility of maintaining the standard in future editions. There are also several other changes that enhance the presentation. The use of "treatment ladders", based on the WHO Analgesic Ladder, for symptoms other than pain is a useful guide to how one should work through the different treatment alternatives with difficult symptoms. The treatment sections throughout the book have been standardized and are divided into three categories—correct the correctable/non-drug treatment/drug treatment—which makes the book easier to use. There is also a new chapter with a handful of succinct and useful Clinical Guidelines.

There is a wealth of information in this book. It is well presented and easily accessed. It is up to date and well referenced. It is comprehensive without being encyclopaedic. This book can be confidently recommended to any doctors or nurses working with patients with advanced cancer.

Highly recommended.

Roger Woodruff

Director of Palliative Care, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia (March 2003)

Author Information

Robert Twycross is the Macmillan Clinical Reader in Palliative Medicine, University of Oxford, UK

Andrew Wilcock is Macmillan Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine and Medical Oncology, University of Nottingham, UK

Table of Contents

1. General Principles 1
2. Pain Relief 17
3. Elementary Symptoms 69
4. Respiratory Symptoms 141
5. Psychological Symptoms 181
6. Biochemical Syndromes 215
7. Haematological Symptoms 227
8. Neurological Symptoms 259
9. Urinary Symptoms 291
10. Skin Care 303
11. Lymphoedema 339
12. Therapeutic Emergencies 359
13. Clinical Guidelines 375

Index 401