Introduction to Oncologic Thanatology -- Pathophysiology of Death -- Common Causes of Death of Cancer Patients -- Definitions of Death- Historical and Current -- Ethics of Death -- Economics of Death -- Legal Aspects of Death -- Predicting death -- Medical Care of the Dying Patient -- Spiritual Care of the Dying Patient -- Communicating with the Dying Patient and Family -- Bereavement - Death and the Survivors -- The Afterlife - Common Religious Representations of Life After Death.

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.