Survivors of cancer .. "suffering after healing"

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Doctors and scientists develop clinical guidelines for cancer survivors as more and more people live decades after diagnosis, but US report suggests that extra work is needed to improve the quality of medical care brought to survivors of the deadly disease.

More than a decade has passed since the US National Academy of Medicine released its key report on cancer survivors, which inspired patients to focus on patient care in 2006.

The report advocated changing the way we think, rather than focusing on treating tumors. We insist that lifelong health problems are reduced by malignant tumors, surgical procedures, treatments and procedures. radiation. The researchers said in a report published by the National Cancer Institute that many of the recommendations contained in the 2006 report had not been fully implemented, despite the progress made.

"One of the great successes is the awareness of the challenges post-treatment cancer survivors face, such as body toxicity or premature aging due to chemotherapy and its effects," said Dr. Ron Klein, Senior Scientist at the Baltimore Medicare and Medicaid Development Center. The psychological stress of not knowing if the cancer will come back, and the physical burden of a treatment that sometimes lasts for long periods, may be indefinitely. "

"By recognizing these challenges, leaders in the field are developing and testing new models for victim care and demanding quality for the care they receive," he said. The Klein report states that the National Academy of Medicine's report allowed health care providers to improve service delivery to help patients and their families understand the importance of post-treatment phase.

For example, the report recommends patients to benefit from health care plans after their survival to help them during periodic examinations and treatments once the tumor is over, but it is unclear to what extent these diets are actually used or they have improved the results.

According to the researchers' new report, part of the problem lies in the lack of clear criteria for assessing or improving the quality of health care provided to victims. Most quality measures focus on oncology rather than helping them adapt to their lives later on. The new report adds that physicians are not very committed to training health service providers to the Academy's recommendations on survivor care, although professional and voluntary institutions have developed training programs. in this regard.