A cancer patient is a person with any type of cancer that is still alive. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether the person who is actively dying is considered a survivor, and whether healthy friends and family members of cancer patients are also considered survivors, varying from group to group. Some people who have been diagnosed with cancer reject the term survivors or disagree with some definitions of it.
How many people survived cancer depends on the definition used. Currently almost 65% of adults diagnosed with cancer in the developed world are expected to live at least five years after the cancer is found. In the US for example, about 11 million Americans live today - one in 30 people - are currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past.
Many cancer patients describe the process of living with and defeating cancer as a life-changing experience. It is not uncommon for survivors to use the experience as an opportunity to transform themselves creatively into "better people" or as motivation to achieve very important goals, such as mountain climbing or reconciliation with estranged family members. This post-traumatic growth process is called looking for benefits . Cancer survivors often have special medical and non-medical needs associated with their cancer experience.
Video Cancer survivor
Definitions and alternatives
Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK defines cancer survivors as someone who "lives with or outside of cancer", ie someone who:
- has completed early cancer management and has no clear evidence of active disease;
- live with progressive disease and may receive cancer treatment, but not in the terminal phase of the disease; or
- had cancer.
The National Coalition for Cancer Rescue (NCCS) pioneered the definition of survivors as people diagnosed with cancer, from the time of its initial diagnosis to death. The broad definition of "survivors" includes people dying of cancer that can not be cured. The NCCS then extends the definition of the victim even further to include family, friends and volunteers who are affected by the diagnosis in any way. The National Cancer Institute of the United States, the Cancer Rescue Institute uses this expanded definition variant.
The word congratulations is the term that is loaded. In the culture of breast cancer, survival is given to women (and men) who are considered to have experienced emotional or physical trauma, even if their breast cancer is a non-life-threatening pre-cancer condition such as LCIS or DCIS. This term tends to remove and degrade those who are dying of cancer that can not be cured. This idea of ​​resilience emphasizes and values ​​the longevity of life after diagnosis, while ignoring the quality of life issues.
Some people reject the term survivors as narrow conceptualizations of highly varied human experiences. Alternatives include alivers and thrivers , which emphasizes life to the greatest extent possible, despite limitations and defects. The third term, diers , is used by some severely ill patients who reject the claim that death is part of survival or must be covered in improper language.
The term previvor has been used to describe the unaffected operator. Unaffected officers, or survivors, are those who are not diagnosed with cancer, but who knows they are likely to develop cancer because of certain genetic mutations that make up the known cancer syndrome. They have a predisposition of vived pre , or higher risk, cancer. Thus, this is the first generation in human history that, armed with information about predisposing cancer after selecting DNA tests, can make informed choices before cancer diagnosis. The typical previvor has been positively tested for BRCA mutations and knows that it is at high risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer, and seeks to manage that risk through a combination of increased surveillance through mammograms, breast MRI, pelvic ultrasound, oophorectomy, bilateral mastectomy, and medical procedures others. There is much controversy over the term predecessors , due to the fact that the name of comparing these healthy women with people has actually been diagnosed with invasive cancer.
Maps Cancer survivor
Cancer survival needs
People who have completed cancer care often have psychological and physical medical challenges. These effects may vary from person to person, changing over time, and the range of intensity from mild and intermittent to fully disabling. They usually include fatigue, pain, sleep problems, physical side effects such as lymphoedema, weight gain, anxiety and depression, fear of cancer recurrence, and impaired quality of life.
Back to Life
If the treatment is long and disturbing, many patients have difficulty returning to normal daily life. The energy needed to deal with a rigorous care program may have caused them to disconnect from previous daily patterns, such as work, normal self-care, and housekeeping. A small number of patients become dependent on the attention and sympathy they receive during the treatment and feel neglected when life returns to normal. There are tremendous implications that cancer has on relationships experienced by their loved ones (especially partners) after their cancer is treated, and social support plays a key role in long-term emotional adjustment.
Ongoing effect
Some survivors, even if the cancer has healed permanently, are struggling emotionally from the trauma of having a life-threatening illness. Cancer survivors suffer more psychological pressure than those who have never had cancer (5.6% versus 3.0%) Serious psychosocial distress seen 40% more among those who survived cancer five years or more than those who never suffering from cancer. About 10% have major depressive disorder; others have an adjustment disorder. In young adult cancer victims, one small study found that 20% of participants met a full clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 45% to 95% showed at least one PTSD symptom. Adult cancer victims are at an increased risk of suicidal ideology (have thoughts of suicide), while as many as 13% of childhood cancer survivors experience suicidal ideologies. Problems of pain and physical illness have been hypothesized as a major factor contributing to cancer survivors who experience this suicidal ideology.
Fear of cancer recurrence
Patients whose cancer is in remission may still have to face the uncertainty that whenever their cancer can return without warning. After initial treatment is over, anxiety is more common in cancer survivors than in others. This anxiety about the return of cancer is called a fear of cancer recurrence. Many patients are concerned that any small symptoms indicate that the cancer has returned, with as many as 9 out of 10 patients fearing that their cancer will recur or spread. In addition to the emergence of new aches and pains, a common trigger for the fear that cancer may return includes hearing that others have been diagnosed with cancer, an annual medical examination to determine whether the cancer recurs and news about cancer. This anxiety leads to more medical examinations, which can be measured even after a period of up to ten years. These fears can have a significant impact on the lives of individuals, resulting in difficulties in their daily lives such as work and socializing, and the difficulty of planning for the future. Overall, the fear of cancer recurrence is associated with decreased quality of life in cancer patients
While Concerns about Cancer Recurrence (FCR) can be adaptive at low levels, high levels of FCR require psychological treatment. Currently, there is no psychometric FCR measurement, which makes the study of treatment protocol effectiveness difficult to interpret. Treatments under investigation include: cognitive-behavioral therapy, meta-cognitive therapy and cognitive-existential group therapy and exercise.
Survivorship
The cultural ideals of a survivor can increase the suffering of the patient if the patient is unable or unwilling to live up to the ideal. Ideal survivors boldly commit themselves to mainstream medicine and are optimistic or even convinced of physical healing. She is open about diagnosis and treatment and becomes an educated and capable medical consumer. Ideal survivors, such as super women who simultaneously manage their homes, families, and careers, struggle bravely to prevent cancer from affecting loved ones by performing, behaving and working as much as possible. As soon as the crisis passes, the person may feel strongly motivated to donate time, money and energy to cancer-related organizations. Above all, the ideal sacrifice does not die of cancer. People who openly adapt to these ideals are given social status and respect.
Physical
In terms of medical challenges, some victims experience cancer-related fatigue, may have long-term side effects of cancer and its treatment, and may require extensive rehabilitation for mobility and function if aggressive surgery is needed to remove the cancer. They may experience post-chemotherapy or persistent cognitive cognitive impairment. Some young victims lose their ability to have children.
Cancer victims often require medical monitoring, and some treatments for unrelated illnesses in the future can be contraindicated. For example, a patient who has had a large amount of radiation therapy may not be a good candidate for more radiation treatments in the future. To help with this need, the "victim care plan" has been promoted. It is a personalized document that describes a person's diagnosis and treatment in detail, a list of commonly known side effects, and specifically outlines the steps that victims must take in the future, from maintaining a healthy weight to receiving a specific medical test on scheduled schedule.
Medical tests to determine whether the cancer has returned generally provoke fears. Informally, this is called scan anxiety , portmanteau scan and anxiety . The desire to avoid this fear can encourage the victim to delay or reject the test.
Survivors of childhood cancer have a life expectancy of up to 28% shorter than those in the general population. Therefore, there is a need to monitor this patient longer than usual. The Children's Oncology Group recommends that monitoring should include follow-up and regular checkups by a physician who is familiar with this patient's risk. Increasing the longevity of these patients requires the recognition and treatment of diseases associated with late effects within decades after therapy for childhood cancer. For example, childhood cancer survivors may have more difficulty than typically with breastfeeding and need more support for this health promotion activity. Others experience various forms of heart disease. One of the challenges to achieving this goal is that childhood cancer survivors are both very adaptable and accustomed to denying adversity; as a result, they tend to minimize their symptoms. Therefore, internists may not give them all the attention they need and thus the help they actually need. Symptom management, health promotion, special attention to psychosocial needs, and supervision for recurrence and specific treatment-specific end-effects are helpful.
Young adolescents and young adults who survived
Young adolescents and young adults (AJs) who survived, often defined as between the ages of 15 and 39, have seen progress in modern technology and medicine that led to a dramatic increase in the number of survivors of AYA. Before 1970, being diagnosed with cancer during childhood was considered a universally lethal disease. From 1995 to 2000, the 5-year survival rate for children diagnosed with cancer was 80%. Significant progress has been made in the last 25 years as there are now about 270,000 survivors of pediatric cancer in the US, which translates to about 1 in every 640 young adults who are child cancer survivors. However, as the study shows, as patient needs increase, the chances of having unmet needs are also increasing. For the AYA population, 2 out of 3 childhood cancer victims will develop 1 complication because the therapy they receive and 1 in 3 will develop serious or life-threatening complications, which means they will most likely require advanced care and care. In addition, AYA may experience greater difficulty following treatment, which may negatively impact future results.
An AYA victim faces various problems as a result of their unique cancer diagnosis and treatment for their special age group that distinguishes the surviving population of the surviving adult population. For example, AYA victims report that their education, occupation, sexual function, marriage, fertility, and other life values ​​are affected by their cancer. Data show that AYA victims have a much greater risk of acquiring a second primary malignancy as a side effect of treatment for their original diagnosis. It is believed that AHAs have a much higher relative risk for developing a second primary cancer because of the intensity of treatment for their native diagnosis, usually including a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, much higher than the intensity level assigned to the patient. patients over 40. In addition, since AYA victims are diagnosed and treated at a very young age, the length of their time as survivors is much longer than their adult counterparts, making it more likely they will face a second primary cancer in their lifetime.
Barriers to long-term quality follow-up care
Cancer survivors, in particular, need comprehensive, long-term care to develop. One way this can be achieved is through continuous care with primary care physicians who are trained to identify possible late effects of previous treatments and treatments.
The Children's Oncology Group (COG) has designed a set of survival guides that hope to help both health care professionals and victims themselves, both in the complexity and basics of long-term follow-up care. COG has guidelines for how a patient should develop their own "care summary" so they can have a history of treatment with them when they visit any health care provider. COG shows that a survivor includes the following in his care summary:
- Disease name, diagnosis date, disease stage, contact information from the clinic/hospital where you received your treatment
- The name and dose of chemotherapy and radiation you receive and the irradiated body area
- The name and date of operation you have
- If you have received a transplant, the type of transplant and where the transplant was received and whether you developed a chronic Graft-versus-Host disease
- Significant name and date of complications and treatment received for the complication
With a summary of treatment, experts hope that survivors will be better prepared for the significant burden of maintaining long-term follow-up care after their original treatment. This is especially important for AYA populations, in particular, as they usually face major social changes with regard to their relationship status, employment or education status, their insurance coverage, and even their residence, etc. Typically, most of these factors are fairly constant for the adult population and if they change, it will happen in one or two aspects of their lives. However, with the AYA population, the time period of up to 40 years is when they will go, for most of the population, to experience the greatest change. This fact underscores the importance of a smooth transition of child-centered health care services to adult-focused healthcare services where they are managed consistently.
The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on AYA survivors
The US Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 made it illegal for health insurance providers to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, as previously had survived cancer. Young adults will now be required to have insurance and, with a few exceptions, will be covered under the scope of their parents until the age of 26 years as depending on their parent's plans.
Cares
Studies among survivors of endometrial cancer show that satisfaction with information given about disease and treatment improves quality of life, lowers depression and produces less anxiety. People who receive information on paper, compared with oral, indicate that they receive more information and are more satisfied with the information provided. The American Institute of Medicine and the Dutch Medical Board recommend the use of the Refugee Treatment Plan; which is a summary of patient care, with recommendations for subsequent surveillance, final effects management, and strategies for health promotion.
Cancer victims are encouraged to meet the same guidelines for physical activity as residual populations. Increased physical activity reduces all cancer-specific causes and mortality in breast and colorectal cancer victims. Physical activity improves quality of life among various cancer survivors and may also help with cancer-related fatigue and general comorbidities.
Diet may also affect long-term mortality, with evidence in different types of cancer.
However, adherence to diet and exercise recommendations among cancer patients is often poor. Interventional changes in digital behavior can successfully increase physical activity and can also help with diet in cancer patients.
Family members
Family members can be significantly affected by the cancer experience of their loved ones. For parents of children with cancer, completing treatment can be a very vulnerable time. In the post-treatment period, some parents may experience an increase in anxiety, depression and feelings of helplessness. Evidence-based psychological interventions tailored to the needs of parents of childhood cancer sufferers can help parents in continuing their normal life after their child completes the treatment.
Couple cancer survivors are more likely than others to experience anxiety in the years after successful treatment of their partner.
The famous cancer victims
- View Category: Cancer survivors
See also
- Learning Problems in Children's Cancer
- Psycho-oncology
References
External links
- The Patient's Guide to Surviving at Esmo.org by the European Society for Medical Oncology
- Safety information at Cancer.Net by the American Society of Clinical Oncology
- National Coalition for Cancer Rescue
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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