Supportive Care of Children with Cancer

Book excerpt: Three of every four children and adolescents with cancer can now be cured. However, physicians are using increasingly intensive treatment regimens. These treatments can expose patients to toxic chemotherapeutic agents, invasive surgical procedures, and radiation oncology interventions that risk disfigurement, neuropsychiatric damage, and life-threatening organ toxicity. These potentially dire consequences have mandated that advances in cancer treatment go hand in hand with supportive care measures that sustain patients through their therapeutic ordeal and allow each patient to achieve maximum quality of life. In this book, now in its third edition, the discipline of supportive care in pediatric oncology is covered in depth. Supportive Care of Children with Cancer is a ready-reference handbook designed for use at the hospital bedside, in the oncology outpatient clinic, or in the physician's office. To create this book, leading experts in the field recommended approaches to supportive care which were then critically reviewed by members of the Children's Oncology Group, the world's largest cooperative study group for children's cancer. For students, house officers, fellows, pediatric oncologists, surgeons, nurses, nutritionists, social workers, and psychologists, this book provides essential information about the care of pediatric oncology patients. The third edition features a new chapter on recognition, prevention, and remediation of burnout in pediatric oncology staff members, while throughout the book, chapters have been revised and updated to reflect the impact of new antibiotic agents, new antiemetics, and new approaches to pain management.