Cancer recurrence, peri-operative interventions and anaesthesia: Review of current evidence

In recent years, the anaesthesia profession has become increasingly involved in perioperative medicine. This interest has, perhaps, no more appropriate focus than in the field of perioperative interventions that may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in the surgical oncology patient.

There is strong evidence that in the perioperative patient under acute immune and inflammatory stress, in the setting of minimal residual disease, an acutely high risk of metastasis exists.

This review will focus on some of the more recent animal and human research in this field and aim to provide a glimpse into an area of complex, uncertain and yet encouraging evidence that interventions in the perioperative period could have significant impact on long term cancer outcomes.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/slja.v20i2.4494

Sri Lankan Journal of Anaesthesiology 20(2): 68 - 72 (2012)

Sri Lankan Journal of Anaesthesiology.2012:20(2):68-72