1. Figure 3 Care needs of patients with advanced-stage cancer
Figure 3 | Care needs of patients with advanced-stage cancer. a | The care needs of a patient with cancer can be classified under three domains: cancer management; symptom management and personal care needs; and the management of comorbidities. Considerable interactions exist between these domains and, therefore, interventions relating to one domain of care can influence the needs pertaining to another (arrows), which necessitates dynamic monitoring of the patient and modification of their care. For instance, chemotherapeutic agents can cause renal failure, which requires the initiation of different medical interventions and can also affect the ability of the patient to proceed with oncological investigations and treatments. Disease progression might affect the emotional state of the patient, which might, in turn, affect their adherence to treatment. To optimize patient outcomes, the oncology team, palliative-care team, primary-care team, and other subspecialists need to collaborate closely and communicate often. b | Personal care needs can be further subdivided into acute issues, chronic issues, psychosocial issues, and existential and spiritual issues. Relevant expertise, close collaboration and interdisciplinary teamwork, and adequate resources are important requirements to comprehensively address these supportive-care issues, longitudinally.
Hui, D. & Bruera, E. (2015) Integrating palliative care into the trajectory of cancer care
Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. doi: /nrclinonc