With the increasing proportion of persons above 65 years old and over with a 50% overall risk of developing cancer during our lifetimes, cancer rates continue to play a role in the utilization of healthcare services--particularly in the ICU. Currently, very few oncologic critical care texts, journals, subspecialty societies in the field, or knowledge about the current availability of oncologic/hematologic ICUs exist. As such, major knowledge gaps exist about outcomes (e.g., ICU utilization, mortality, costs); healthcare disparities (e.g., racial, geographic); and almost all aspects of intensive care delivery to the critically ill cancer patient. With the aging of the population and projected shortage of critical care providers over the next 25 years, identifying the outcomes of the available oncologic critical care resources is imperative.

To address such disparities, this text seeks to close significant knowledge and educational gaps within the realms of medical care for critically ill cancer patients by serving as one of the first major reference works on oncologic critical care. Main objectives encompass closing existing critical care knowledge gaps to serve as a vehicle of education for current and successive generations of intensivists, advance practice providers, nurses, and other healthcare providers. As such, the text reviews all significant aspects of oncologic ICU practices, with a particular focus on challenges encountered in the diagnosis and management of the critically ill cancer patient population. Comprised of over 100 chapters, the text explores such topics as the organization and management of an oncologic ICU, diseases and complications encountered in the oncologic ICU, multidisciplinary care, surgical care, transfusion medicine, special patient populations, critical care procedures, ethics, pain management, and palliative care.