The increasing cancer burden in the society has made it mandatory for all healthcare providers to be aware of the basics of cancer pain and its management. This book is the first of its kind in the Indian market catering to pain management with details relevant to the Indian scenario.
The chapters are comprehensive, complete and written in simple English for better understanding. The chapters are brief to facilitate a quick and complete read making it an ideal reference book. A single book catering to all onco healthcare providers inclusive of pain physicians, anesthesiologists, onco physicians, onco surgeons (inclusive of trainees) and onco nurses. Few chapters including 'opioid policies' are unique to the Indian setting, and provides guidance for
individual hospital/clinic opioid policies.
Aparna Chatterjee MD (Anaesthesia), FCARCSI (Dublin) is currently Professor and Head (Div. of Pain), Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Hospital and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. She completed her postgraduation with a gold medal from the prestigious Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospital. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Anesthetists in Ireland, Dublin. On her return to India from England in 2002, she joined Tata Memorial Hospital. It was here that her exposure to cancer pain management strengthened her interest and passion in the specialty. She has since devoted most of her time to provide cancer pain relief at the hospital including training of junior colleagues and trainees. She has spearheaded nurses training at the hospital with the aim of including them in pain management teams across the hospital and improve overall patient care. A postgraduate teacher in anesthesia and an MD examiner, organizer of several courses at the hospital, including the anesthesia review course, an annual exam preparatory course and part of the organizing committee of the Education in Cancer and Acute Pain (ECAP), an annual programme directed towards spreading the knowledge of cancer pain management and perioperative pain management. She has delivered several lectures on the topic of cancer pain and helped in creation of the pain protocols across the hospital. She is passionate about alleviating suffering of cancer patients and as an active member of ISSP, was actively involved in formulating guidelines for cancer pain management in India. She has several publications in the field of cancer pain and is a reviewer for the Indian Journal of Palliative Care as well as for the Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy. Sumitra Bakshi MD, DNB (Anesthesia) is currently Professor, Departmental lead for the Acute Pain Service (APS), Tata Memorial Hospital and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai. She has been an active member of the APS since 2006. She has elevated APS to be at par with the world's finest through the experience she gained visiting renowned institutions inclusive of MD Anderson (Texas, USA), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute (NY, USA), Toronto General Hospital (Canada), Peter MacCallum Centre (Melbourne, Australia) and Royal Perth Hospital (Perth, Australia). Her Australian and New Zealand College of Anesthetists (ANZCA) award winning clinical trial in regional analgesia introduced an effective opioid sparing technique as an alternative to epidural analgesia in select patients. An innovative out of the box thinker, she has created a digital platform for capturing and analyzing clinical notes of the APS, which is one of its kind and is in the process of being replicated in other hospitals of Tata Memorial Centre. Her efforts in advancing APS protocols have actively translated into better pain management in the perioperative period making this service one of the best in India. In addition to formulating the APS protocols at her hospital, she is the leader of the postgraduate training program for pain management post-surgery. She started the annual teaching program 'Education in Cancer and Acute Pain –ECAP' in 2012, which has completed ten successful years. She has published above 90 articles with more than half in the field of pain management and was awarded the 'Best Reviewer' by the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia (IJA) in 2019. She has also contributed critical chapters to seven important reference books in anesthesia and pain management inclusive of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) Manual of Clinical Oncology
