Surgical oncology clinics of North America
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Surg. Oncol. Clin. N. Am. · Jul 2004
Review Comparative StudyPalliative care: an essential aspect of quality cancer care.
The past 2 decades in the United States have witnessed major developments in palliative care. Despite major advances in the early detection and treatment of cancer, more than 550,000 people in the United States die each year from cancer. For most of these patients,treatment in the last months of life is focused on attempts to achieve comfort rather than on treatment aimed at cure of disease. This article discusses the goals of palliative care, the progress that has been made in meeting these goals, and the progress that still needs to be made.
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Surg. Oncol. Clin. N. Am. · Jul 2004
Review Comparative StudyMethodology for scientific evaluation of palliative surgery.
Measuring the success of surgical palliation is not straightforward. To measure the benefits as well as limitations of surgical palliation,surgeons need outcome assessments other than the existing traditional measures of 30-day surgical morbidity and mortality and 5-year survival. This article delineates a scientific method of evaluating and measuring surgical palliation and shares techniques and pitfalls of assessment gained from prior experience.
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Surg. Oncol. Clin. N. Am. · Jul 2004
Review Comparative StudyGastrectomy for gastric cancer: defining critical elements of patient selection and outcome assessment.
In advanced gastric cancer, palliation of symptoms, rather than cure, is often the most appropriate goal of patient management. There are important differences among patients undergoing non-curative operations for gastric cancer. ⋯ In clinical decision-making, the potential benefits of proposed procedure must be balanced against the duration of hospitalization, treatment of complications, and requirements for additional palliation. Studies designed to measure palliative interventions would benefit from precise designations of palliative intent inpatients receiving non-curative operations.
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Primary and metastatic thoracic malignancies are often incurable. Surgeons caring for these patients must be familiar with the options,indications, techniques, and limitations of interventions for palliative treatments in these patients. This article is an overview of the current practices for palliation of a broad spectrum of complaints relating to patients with carcinomas of the lung, esophagus,and mesothelium. The information can be used for treatment of patients with complaints secondary to less common malignancies and metastatic disease of the thorax.