What is intervention and quality of life of advance progressive cancer patients?

Knowledge about your type of cancer, treatment alternatives, and the proper supportive care can be key to achieving this goal.

Under normal circumstances, most of us would probably define quality of life as companionship with family and friends, rewarding work (paid or volunteer), the knowledge that we make a difference in the lives of others, the freedom to pursue a multitude of interests, the joy of learning something new.

Under the abnormal circumstance of receiving a cancer diagnosis and undergoing treatment, these sources of satisfaction and self-esteem can be severely compromised. Quality of life diminishes very quickly when one is fearful, fatigued, in pain, enduring therapeutic side effects, or contemplating the possibility of treatment failure and death. Therefore, your first task in dealing with cancer is to regain your equilibrium by addressing these very real issues and creating a support system tailored to your needs.

Over time, the type of support you need will change, depending in part on the outcome of therapy, be it surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or any combination of these four modalities. The desired outcome is always to achieve a cure and, when that is not possible, to enable long-term survival with chronic disease. However, if neither of these results is feasible, the therapeutic goal changes to that of providing appropriate comfort care.

What does not change at any stage of cancer treatment is the singular goal of enabling each person to have the highest possible quality of life by helping them define their goals and needs and then offering them the appropriate supportive care services. In fact, supportive care has proven so essential an adjunct to the four traditional modalities that we consider it to be a crucial fifth dimension of cancer therapy after surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

Supportive care includes nutrition programs to help reduce treatment side effects; exercise regimens; instruction in the many arts of mind and body control, such as biofeedback, tai chi, and self-hypnosis; individual or group counseling for the patient, family, and friends; intellectual and creative pursuits from Chess to art and music therapy; and spiritual guidance. When evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, and pondering which supportive care services will increase your ability to cope, you should not feel it is a sign of weakness to seek help. On the contrary, it is a sign of strength-requiring a high degree of honesty and self-awareness-to recognize what you need and to take responsibility for getting it. In the process, you will hone your coping skills and rekindle hope - powerful weapons in your battle with cancer.