Onco-Anaesthesiology and palliative medicine: Opportunities and challenges

Global cancer burden is on the rise and many more patients present for surgery or other oncological diagnostic or therapeutic interventions requiring anaesthesia. Oncology therapy is unique as it requires a multidisciplinary team of surgical, medical and radiation oncologists apart from palliative medicine (PM) specialists, and anaesthesiologists. Anaesthetic management can affect the outcome of oncology treatment both by ensuring early return to oncology treatment and some anaesthetic techniques being innately associated with recurrence. Hence, the time has come for a separate super-speciality of onco-anaesthesiology to cater to the complex unmet needs of cancer patients. PM is the fourth dimension of oncology care and so mandatory education and training should be included in the undergraduate curriculum.