Effects of cancer treatment on perioperative anesthetic care

The anesthetic management of the cancer patient can be challenging, and it requires a clear understanding of the treatment modalities and their side effects. The physiologic derangements caused by chemotherapy agents and radiation therapy are significant and can cause serious and often permanent damage to various organ systems of the body. Proper evaluation and consultation with other health care providers is often essential in the preoperative and postoperative period. As technology progresses and as newer agents become available, more of these patients will require surgical procedures. To date, there have been no studies of the interactions between chemotherapy and anesthetic agents. A knowledge of cancer disease processes, as well as the potential hazards and physiologic insults caused by cancer treatment, should help the anesthesiologist make careful, appropriate decisions in the perioperative management of these patients.