Adult oncological patient in intensive care.Is it time to start saying "yes, we will consider" instead of just "no"?
Abstract
An increasing number of cancer patients are being admitted to the intensive care and high dependency units due to the rising incidence of solid and/or haematological malignancies together with an expanding range of therapeutic options and improved survival of these patients. The reasons for admission are the potentially life-threatening cancer-related complications and/or treatment-associated side-effects or eventual co-morbidities.
Epidemiology, indication criteria, extension of treatment, prognosis of the acute disease and changes applied to the general prognosis as a consequence of the critical illness are some of the most common and frequently unanswered questions the intensivists need to examine, and they are discussed within this review.