Beyond Sleep: Anesthetic Choice, Immune Function, and Cancer Recurrence
What the evidence actually says about your anesthetic and cancer recurrence.
Does the anesthetic you choose change whether a patient's cancer comes back? A critical look at the immunology, the drugs, and the trials: volatile anesthetics versus propofol, opioids, lidocaine, dexmedetomidine, ketamine, NSAIDs, regional anesthesia, and the other modifiable perioperative factors, ending with how to plan a cancer-conscious anesthetic and talk about it honestly with patients and surgeons.
CRNAs who care for surgical oncology patients and want to answer the TIVA-and-cancer question with evidence, not opinion.
What you'll be able to do
Concrete, bedside-ready capabilities — not abstract objectives.
Explain how surgery, the stress response, and anesthetic drugs affect immune surveillance of cancer in the perioperative period.
Compare the evidence on volatile anesthetics and propofol-based TIVA and cancer outcomes, from laboratory studies to randomized trials.
Evaluate the immune effects of opioids, IV lidocaine, dexmedetomidine, ketamine, NSAIDs, and regional anesthesia.
Appraise perioperative cancer research for confounding, selection bias, and the limits of laboratory-to-patient translation.
Plan a cancer-conscious anesthetic and discuss it honestly with patients and surgeons.
Your instructor
Anastasia is a practicing nurse anesthetist who also builds clinical software. That combination is rare — she works in the OR and with the code, so she can translate what these AI tools actually do into language clinicians use, without the vendor spin.