Dying and Death in Oncology

This book brings together in one volume many important topics about death and dying, including the pathophysiology of death, the causes of death among cancer patients, the ethics of death, the legal aspects of death for the physician and for the patient and caregivers, the economics of death, the medical management of the dying patient, including pain and dyspnea, the prediction of death, and the spiritual management of the dying patient. It also discusses other medical and humanistic aspects of death and dying, such as the historical definition of death and various cultures’ and religions’ viewpoints on death and the afterlife. Everybody, including every patient with cancer, will die, and every physician will have to assist dying patients. Oncologists face this prospect more often than many physicians. And yet to date there has been no comprehensive textbook on Thanatology, the academic discipline studying death and dying, to assist oncologists in this difficult task. This book will help the physician to understand his or her own relationship with death and to communicate about death and dying with the patient and the patient’s caregivers.

About the Author

Lawrence Berk, a radiation oncologist, completed a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Yale University studying the high field conductivity of aqueous solutions and then researched batteries and fuel cells for Westinghouse Electric Corporation. He then studied medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and completed his residency in radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked in private practice and in academics, and he is currently Professor and Chief of Radiation Oncology at the Morsani School of Medicine of the University of South Florida. His research has been in palliative care and symptom management. He has led national trials studying brain metastases, cancer cachexia and radiation esophagitis.