Cancer remains at best a chronic condition, dominated by discomfort, side effects from treatment and symptoms. Their contribution to the overall Quality of Life (QOL) varies and is tolerated by each individual to a different degree. It is this perspective that matters: the patient perceives changes in his well-being and their impact in a very personal way; the clinician?s perspective may be a odds with the patient?s and is usually based on ?objective? events (a decline or improvement in the patient?s status). Even the more recent questionnaires and score-keeping methods, ranging from the capacity to function socially to intolerable pain, are difficult to reduce to a common denominator. The set of values and goals for a cancer patient differ and to strike a balance is a continuous, ongoing process. QOL evaluations are only another tool in our understanding of the suffering individual, not a convenient filing box where the patient is categorized, but not helped.
Go to Previous Page
Go to Next Page