Cancer Care For The Whole Patient

Cancer care today often provides state-of-the-science biomedical treatment, but fails to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the illness. This failure can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect the health of cancer patients. Psychological and social problems created or exacerbated by cancer-including depression and other emotional problems; lack of information or skills needed to manage the illness; lack of transportation or other resources; and disruptions in work, school, and family life-cause additional suffering, weaken adherence to prescribed treatments, and threaten patients' return to health. Today, it is not possible to deliver high-quality cancer care without using existing approaches, tools, and resources to address patients' psychosocial health needs. All patients with cancer and their families should expect and receive cancer care that ensures the provision of appropriate psychosocial health services. Cancer Care for the Whole Patient recommends actions that oncology providers, health policy makers, educators, health insurers, health planners, researchers and research sponsors, and consumer advocates should undertake to ensure that this standard is met.

Healing and Cancer strives to bring the concepts of healing and whole person care further into health care delivery so that people with cancer feel better and live longer. This important book places the concepts, science, delivery tools, and access to further resources for whole person care into the hands of cancer care teams for use with patients and caregivers. These days, cancer care generally focuses on attacking and killing the cancer cell—a laudable goal. However, if eliminating the tumor overshadows everything else, teams can lose sight of the care and healing of the person as a whole. This has great costs: for the person there are costs in time, money, side effects, and fear; and for the care team there are costs in the joy of practice, the energy to improve practice, and in overall vitality. Often, key patient needs are inadvertently pushed to the background for lack of time, tools, and resources. Moral injury and human suffering ensue. Advances in science have now clearly demonstrated that cancer does not develop in isolation, and its occurrence, progression and regression are largely influenced by the surrounding environment—the immune system, inflammation in the body, and things we ingest and are exposed to. By utilizing the methodologies and concepts outlined in this book, oncology teams can bring the full science of cancer biology into the care of the patient while inviting the person into full engagement in their own care. Doing so, they will have achieved the highest quality of care for people diagnosed with cancer. Care teams that practice deep listening—up front and early on—to patients as people move beyond patient-centered care to person-centered and whole person care. With increasing numbers of survivors of cancer and the intensity and duration of relationships in oncology, cancer care is a field uniquely positioned to further the uptake of whole-person care and to join colleagues in primary care who are doing the same. Healing and Cancer first defines what whole person cancer care is, and drawing on examples from around the world, illustrates how and why it needs to be standard in all of oncology. The authors describe the science behind whole person care and the evidence that supports its application, including real-world examples of how it’s being done in small clinics and large institutions, both academic and community-based. Finally, Healing and Cancer directs readers to the best tools and resources available so that cancer care teams, primary care clinicians, integrative practitioners and those with cancer can incorporate whole person care into the healing journey. Healing and Cancer is intended to be read and actively used by teams caring for people with cancer and by caregivers and patients themselves to enhance healing, health, and wellbeing.

Holland-Frei Cancer Medicine, Ninth Edition, offers a balanced view of the most current knowledge of cancer science and clinical oncology practice. This all-new edition is the consummate reference source for medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, internists, surgical oncologists, and others who treat cancer patients. A translational perspective throughout, integrating cancer biology with cancer management providing an in depth understanding of the disease An emphasis on multidisciplinary, research-driven patient care to improve outcomes and optimal use of all appropriate therapies Cutting-edge coverage of personalized cancer care, including molecular diagnostics and therapeutics Concise, readable, clinically relevant text with algorithms, guidelines and insight into the use of both conventional and novel drugs Includes free access to the Wiley Digital Edition providing search across the book, the full reference list with web links, illustrations and photographs, and post-publication updates

In the United States, approximately 14 million people have had cancer and more than 1.6 million new cases are diagnosed each year. However, more than a decade after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) first studied the quality of cancer care, the barriers to achieving excellent care for all cancer patients remain daunting. Care often is not patient-centered, many patients do not receive palliative care to manage their symptoms and side effects from treatment, and decisions about care often are not based on the latest scientific evidence. The cost of cancer care also is rising faster than many sectors of medicine--having increased to $125 billion in 2010 from $72 billion in 2004--and is projected to reach $173 billion by 2020. Rising costs are making cancer care less affordable for patients and their families and are creating disparities in patients' access to high-quality cancer care. There also are growing shortages of health professionals skilled in providing cancer care, and the number of adults age 65 and older--the group most susceptible to cancer--is expected to double by 2030, contributing to a 45 percent increase in the number of people developing cancer. The current care delivery system is poorly prepared to address the care needs of this population, which are complex due to altered physiology, functional and cognitive impairment, multiple coexisting diseases, increased side effects from treatment, and greater need for social support. Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis presents a conceptual framework for improving the quality of cancer care. This study proposes improvements to six interconnected components of care: (1) engaged patients; (2) an adequately staffed, trained, and coordinated workforce; (3) evidence-based care; (4) learning health care information technology (IT); (5) translation of evidence into clinical practice, quality measurement and performance improvement; and (6) accessible and affordable care. This report recommends changes across the board in these areas to improve the quality of care. Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis provides information for cancer care teams, patients and their families, researchers, quality metrics developers, and payers, as well as HHS, other federal agencies, and industry to reevaluate their current roles and responsibilities in cancer care and work together to develop a higher quality care delivery system. By working toward this shared goal, the cancer care community can improve the quality of life and outcomes for people facing a cancer diagnosis.

This open access book provides a valuable resource for hospitals, institutions, and health authorities worldwide in their plans to set up and develop comprehensive cancer care centers. The development and implementation of a comprehensive cancer program allows for a systematic approach to evidence-based strategies of prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliation. Comprehensive cancer programs also provide a nexus for the running of clinical trials and implementation of novel cancer therapies with the overall aim of optimizing comprehensive and holistic care of cancer patients and providing them with the best opportunity to improve quality of life and overall survival. This book's self-contained chapter format aims to reinforce the critical importance of comprehensive cancer care centers while providing a practical guide for the essential components needed to achieve them, such as operational considerations, guidelines for best clinical inpatient and outpatient care, and research and quality management structures. Intended to be wide-ranging and applicable at a global level for both high and low income countries, this book is also instructive for regions with limited resources. The Comprehensive Cancer Center: Development, Integration, and Implementation is an essential resource for oncology physicians including hematologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, and oncology nurses as well as hospitals, health departments, university authorities, governments and legislators.

This is the first Nursing book on cancer care designed around a conceptual model of whole person care. Key concepts are stress, healing, resilience and health. As a clinical model, nursing goals, desired outcomes, key concepts and proposed psychosocial interventions with patients and family caregivers, advance the practice of clinical nursing toward a more comprehensive understanding of the whole person with cancer and their loved ones. As a model for teaching nursing students about chronic illness, it provides a scientific basis for students to learn how to assess and care for the whole person and his loved one. As a model for clinical research in the field of cancer care, it serves as a predicate for the development, evaluation and interpretation of clinical interventions. The model is a dynamic framework that both informs and is informed by research findings. It is hoped that future research findings will reveal the optimal combination of interventions to provide comprehensive care across clinical contexts. With a patient-centred humanistic focus anchored by the quality of the nurse patient and family caregiver relationships, it is hoped that the nurse's technical, procedural and medical expertise may complement rather than define the nurse's approach to the whole patient and family. The book is structured to facilitate the reader's easy access to needed information. Each chapter examines a key concept of the model, and is organized around an introduction, learning objectives, definitions, and relevant research findings that serve as the scientific predicate for suggested interventions discussed in Part 4, Nursing approaches. Clinical and personal anecdotes, tables and figures illustrate the concepts under discussion. Nurse practitioners, clinic nurse specialists, nursing professors, graduate students, and nurse researchers may find this book a useful reference for conceptualizing whole person care, and for determining relevant interventions that promote healing, resilience and health. But it is also relevant for family doctors and fourth year students learning to care for the whole person with a chronic illness.

The Cancer Experience instructs doctors, medical students, and health care workers involved in cancer care on the proper role of medicine, the role of doctors, and the opportunities for connecting with patients as they make treatment and end of life decisions. It helps patients understand the issues facing doctors as they assist and care for them.

Dr. Keith Block is at the global vanguard of innovative cancer care. As medical director of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment in Evanston, Illinois, he has treated thousands of patients who have lived long, full lives beyond their original prognoses. Now he has distilled almost thirty years of experience into the first book that gives patients a systematic, research-based plan for developing the physical and emotional vitality they need to meet the demands of treatment and recovery. Based on a profound understanding of how body and mind can work together to defeat disease, this groundbreaking book offers: • Innovative approaches to conventional treatments, such as “chronotherapy”–chemotherapy timed to patients’ unique circadian rhythms for enhanced effectiveness and reduced toxicity • Dietary choices that make the biochemical environment hostile to cancer growth and recurrence, and strengthen the immune system’s ability to attack remaining cancer cells • Precise supplement protocols to tame treatment side effects, relieve disease-related symptoms, and modify processes like inflammation and glycemia that can fuel cancer if left untreated • A new paradigm for exercise and stress reduction that restores your strength, reduces anxiety and depression, and supports the body’s own ability to heal • A complete program for remission maintenance–a proactive plan to make sure the cancer never returns Also included are “quick-start” maps to help you find the information you need right now and many case histories that will support and inspire you. Encouraging, compassionate, and authoritative, Life over Cancer is the guide patients everywhere have been waiting for.