Clinical Care Pathways in Cancer Surgery

Patients with resectable cancers present unique challenges to surgical and anesthetic teams. These patients frequently require invasive and lengthy procedures that incur higher levels of disability. At the same time, the pressure to return cancer surgery patients to adjuvant cancer therapies places an additional responsibility on care teams. To meet this need, many cancer centers are utilizing enhanced recovery pathways of care. Although many of the practices contained within these pathways have been vetted in non-oncologic and minimally invasive oncologic procedures, major oncologic surgery poses unique challenges to their implementation. The purpose of this review is to highlight the challenges and opportunities that enhanced recovery protocols bring to oncologic surgery. Additionally, special considerations for the measurement of recovery in cancer patients are discussed. © 2015, Springer Science + Business Media New York.