ONCOLOGY FOR PALLIATIVE MEDICINE 2nd edition
Peter Hoskin and Wendy Makin
 |
Oxford University Press, 2002
379 pp
ISBN 0-19-262811-9
RRP £29.95, $US45
|
This book sets out to provide a comprehensive description of the management of cancer for health care professionals working in palliative care. The initial chapters describe the various modalities
of anticancer therapy and there are useful discussions of the principles involved in deciding if and when such treatments are appropriate for patients with advanced cancer or, alternatively,
when not to use them.
The second section provides an overview of the management of all the common cancers, with an emphasis on the treatment of advanced
disease. There are useful algorithm-like tables describing the “patient journey” which help illustrate the therapeutic decision making through the course of the disease.
The final section deals with the management of metastatic disease at common sites and with pain and other tumour-associated problems.
Overall, this is a well written book, but might have been improved by the provision of some key references or suggestions of where
to look if you want to know more about a particular topic. There is no doubt that specialists in palliative care now need to know more about anticancer therapy, as palliative medicine becomes
integrated with oncology at an earlier stage of the patient’s “journey”. The chapters on anticancer therapy and the management of the common tumours (which comprise three-quarters of this book)
will undoubtedly be useful for palliative care professionals who have no formal training in oncology.
Roger Woodruff
Medical Oncologist and Director of Palliative Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia.
(January 2004)
Author Information
Peter Hoskin is Reader in Oncology, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex, UK
Wendy Makin is Consultant in Oncology and Palliative Care, Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK
Table of Contents
1 Palliative oncology
2 Cancer biology
3 Epidemiology and clinical trials
4 The role of surgical and radiological intervention in palliation
5 Principles of radiotherapy
6 Systemic therapy: chemotherapy, hormone therapy, biological therapy
7 Lung cancer and mesothelioma
8 Colorectal cancer
9 Breast cancer
10 Urological cancer
11 Upper gastrointestinal tumours
12 Head and neck cancer
13 Gynaecological cancer
14 Central nervous system tumours
15 Lymphomas
16 Leukaemia and myeloma
17 Skin tumours
18 Bone and soft tissue tumours
19 Malignancy of unknown primary site
20 Malignancy associated with HIV infection
21 Bone metastases
22 Liver metastases
23 Metastatic disease of the thorax
24 Metastases involving the brain and meninges
25 Specific tumour-associated symptoms: pain
26 Other tumour-associated problems
27 Death
