ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to recognize emergencies in patients with advanced disease. It presents a case study of John, who is a 54-year-old man who had surgery for a carcinoma of the colon. In someone with a progressing, advanced disease it is easy to assume that any deterioration is due to the disease and to assume that this is inevitable and irreversible. However, there are many conditions that can be treated or reversed that will improve the quality of life for such patients. Any severe pain needs treatment. Although treatment will not always be possible because the patient is too ill or they refuse treatment, it is important to identify the possibilities. Decisions about emergencies can be clear cut, but in patients with advanced disease there are many occasions when uncertainty exists on: whether the deterioration is treatable how it should be treated. Advice can be sought from specialist teams for the disease concerned, pain teams and palliative care teams.
