Abstract
Patients with solid tumors and hematological neoplasia can be a special challenge for anesthetists with their multilayered core competences (induction of anesthesia, intensive care, emergency medicine, pain therapy and palliative medicine) due to the systemic manifestation of the disease especially in metastatic stages, to complex sequelae of toxic oncologic therapy especially in curatively intended treatment concepts, to difficult ethical decision-making especially in acute situations and to the special emotional state of the patient which can extend throughout the complete course of the disease. In addition there are many new developments in modern oncology, which complicate the special characteristics of oncology patients, can have a direct influence on the anesthesiologic approach and will, therefore, be presented in this article.