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Advances in supportive care
Author(s) -
REDMOND KATHY
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2354.1996.tb00246.x
Subject(s) - medicine , nausea , distressing , quality of life (healthcare) , vomiting , intensive care medicine , psychological intervention , disease , cancer , psychiatry , surgery , nursing , chemistry
A range of distressing symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting, dyspnoea and pain, which invariably impair quality of life, may develop in cancer patients as a result of their disease and treatment. The sideeffects of cancer treatments place additional burdens on the patient. Patients indicate that they find nausea and vomiting and fatigue to be the most &stressing symptoms. The burden of &stressing symptoms and the side‐effects of cancer treatments may lbe so great for some patients that they make a decision not to continue with treatment. Developing better methods of managing these complaints is critical for improving both quallty of life and treatment outcome. Over the past two decades there have been dramatic advances in supportive care. The most significant advances have occurred in the general approach to symptom management and in the development of new pharmacological agents. Advances have also occurred in non‐pharmacological approaches to supportive care and it is now acknowledged that interventions such as patient education and complementary therapies have an important role to play in ameliorating distressing symptoms.