Critical Care of the Cancer Patient

Cancer, once a cause for social embarrassment, is now a socially acceptable disease. Cancer, along with its complications, once a condition that precluded admission to an intensive care unit, is now a leading cause of problems necessitating intensive care. Critical Care of the Cancer Patient , with contributions by specialists and subspecialists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering, one of the nation's premier cancer centers, arrives on the scene in a timely fashion. Many of the problems covered in this text are common to all patients in intensive care, but there is specific emphasis on failures of organ systems resulting from or directly related to cancer and its therapy. As with any multiauthored text, there is substantial variability, although the editors have successfully limited much duplicative discussion. The section on the complications of chemotherapy is remarkably brief, providing but an overview of agents and modalities of therapy. More detail, however, is provided in subsequent