Surgery for cancer patients. Critical care needs

Patients with cancer provide a unique challenge for critical care nurses. Outcomes of clinical trials, new surgical modalities, and pioneering cancer treatments have helped prolong lives. The patient with cancer can require surgical and critical care intervention at the time of diagnosis, at the point of definitive therapy, or in the later stages of disease. Treatment is individual and sometimes aggressive. Surgical intervention is undertaken with a view toward the patient's ultimate outcome, quality of life, and potential cure. Multimodality cancer therapy will continue to flourish, demanding astute assessment skills by the critical care nurse. The critical care nurse must be able to integrate knowledge of the patient's type of cancer, treatment history, comorbid conditions, and surgical interventions into routine postoperative critical care.