Anaesthesia
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Patients with advanced ovarian cancer often require radical cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy, with or without targeted therapy. Return to intended oncological therapy after surgery is a crucial metric, as delay can worsen survival. The concept of return to intended oncological therapy is important because it highlights the need for not just successful surgical outcomes, but also the ability to continue with the comprehensive cancer treatment plan. ⋯ Awareness and management of factors affecting return to intended oncological therapy are essential for improving outcomes in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. We highlight the importance of multidisciplinary care (including enhanced recovery after surgery programmes) and the factors affecting these including age; nutrition; and occurrence of postoperative complications.
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Peri-operative allogeneic red blood cell transfusion is hypothesised to increase the risk of cancer recurrence following cancer surgery. However, previous data supporting this association are limited by residual confounding. We conducted an umbrella review (i.e. a systematic review of systematic reviews) to synthesise and evaluate the evidence between red blood cell transfusion and cancer recurrence. ⋯ Currently available evidence describes an association between peri-operative red blood cell transfusion and cancer recurrence, but this is mostly of low to critically low quality, with minimal control for residual confounding. Further research, at low risk of bias, is required to provide definitive evidence and inform practice.
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The peri-operative period may create a biological environment conducive to cancer cell survival and dissemination. Microscopic residual tumours (micrometastases) can be dislodged even with excellent surgical technique. At the same time, the stress response from surgery can temporarily impair immune function and activate inflammatory processes, increasing the risk of tumour proliferation. ⋯ There is a complex interplay between anaesthetic and analgesic techniques and cancer outcomes. Despite promising data from laboratory experimental models, the balance of available clinical trials indicates an equivalent influence of all evaluated anaesthetic techniques on long-term oncologic outcomes, except, possibly, for peritumoral or intraperitoneal local anaesthetic infiltration.
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Radiotherapy is currently used in approximately one-third of children with cancer. Treatments are typically received as weekday outpatient appointments over 3-6 weeks. The treatment is painless but requires a still, co-operative patient who can lie alone in set positions, facilitated by the use of immobilisation devices, for up to 1 h. ⋯ The requirement for anaesthesia for paediatric radiotherapy is typically confined to younger children. Patients may be unwell, with several specific considerations related to their cancer diagnosis and the impact of various treatments including surgery and chemotherapy, in addition to the radiotherapy. A multidisciplinary team approach to all aspects of care is imperative in this group of high-risk patients.
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Peri-operative medicine is becoming increasingly relevant in the context of managing frail patients with cancer. This paper outlines how demographic shifts in populations are affecting cancer incidence and frailty rates, the relevance this holds to the management of cancer care, and the outcome measures that should be used to gauge best clinical practice to ensure patient-centred care. ⋯ There is need for a greater emphasis on quality-of-life measures alongside mortality and patient-reported outcome measures. We argue that holistic care approaches should play a greater role in enabling the measurement of outcome states beyond simply dead or alive.