While Cancer in Children and Young People is written by and aimed at nurses, the focus on the multidisciplinary paediatric oncology teamwork gives the content of this resource relevance and application to anyone working in the field.
With a variation to the title, this text represents a contemporary second edition of the 1999 UK publication of Paediatric Oncology: Acute Nursing Care. This edition reflects a growing recognition that children and young people are no longer cared for collectively, but require different philosophies of care and face different issues according to their age and developmental stage. The editors have also identified that transitions across the disease continuum make classification of care as either acute or chronic, less difficult to differentiate and much less relevant in modern nursing care.
The book is arranged in five sections, four addressing the different treatment modalities – chemotherapy, haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, surgery and radiotherapy. The final chapter is dedicated to late effects and long-term follow-up. The content is strongly grounded in evidence based practice and reflects best evidence from medical, nursing and allied, psychosocial sources. Each section outlines the physiology and empirical underpinnings of the treatment modality, applications, management and side-effects. Specific issues relevant to each treatment are also addressed, such as protective isolation in stem cell transplantation, ethical issues associated with sibling donors and saviour siblings, targeted therapies, use of radiotherapy in palliation and surgical challenges in brain and bone tumours. The final chapter on late effects of treatment outlines the principles of long-term follow-up, physical and quality of life consequences of treatment and discusses the nursing role and health promotion in long-term follow-up programs.
Both editorship and authorship are exclusively British, with little reference to international context. Nursing roles and care settings in different international contexts vary considerably, even between Western countries, and this will influence the relevance of some chapters, such as late effects, neuro-oncological care and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This was clearly intended for a British audience.
While the editors demonstrate recognition of the unique challenges facing adolescents with cancer and how their care needs differ, few authors differentiat how care may need to be adapted or address the relevance of developmental stage to different modalities. Fertility preservation was only addressed in the context of stem cell transplantation and late effects follow-up, and body image and sexuality issues were given cursory mention in relation to surgery and health promotion.
However, given the burgeoning field that is adolescent cancer care in the United Kingdom, several dedicated texts have been published recently addressing the issues unique to this population and how their care should be provided.
The multidisciplinary approach to care is emphasised in this useful text. Despite the focus on the role of nurses in care of children and young people, the discussion of issues such as ethical dilemmas, effects of protective isolation on the child and incorporating the child and family in decision-making, gives this resource relevance and applicability to professions other than nursing.