Book Description

Handbook of Palliative Radiation Therapy is the first practical guide to palliative care in radiation oncology. The editors have assembled an international team of leading radiation oncologists to write this state-of-the-art volume on planning and administering single-fractionated, hypofractionated, and conventional radiation therapy for end-of-life cancer care. The handbook begins with several chapters on the background and efficacy of palliative radiation therapy, along with crucial information on patient selection and assessment of life expectancy. Following these introductory chapters, the bulk of the book contains chapters on site-specific malignancies, containing comprehensive literature reviews, treatment plans, toxicity information, and symptom management. More than 20 color figures enhance the chapter text and illustrate best practices. Written for radiation oncologists, physicists, and other radiation therapy team members, this indispensable text explains how short course regimens can be used to provide better quality care, increase quality of life and convenience, and relieve pain and suffering for advanced stage and end-of-life cancer patients. Key Features: Chapters contain self-assessment questions, clinical cases, clinical pearls, and other elements to bring out key points in the text Discusses strategies for delivering radiation to patients with significant symptoms, such as bleeding, dysphagia, airway obstruction, and other painful and debilitating side effects Includes reviews of tools for assessing life expectancy including Recursive Partitioning Analysis, the TEACHH tool, and other predictive models such as Number of Risk Factors score Explains appropriate considerations when combining palliative radiation therapy with analgesics