Breast Cancer: Global Quality Care


Book Description

Developing or existing breast cancer centres strive to provide the highest quality care possible within their current financial and personnel resources. Written by a team of over 100 experts from 25 countries, this book provides a practical and comprehensive guide to delivering high quality breast cancer care wherever you live.




Global Perspectives in Cancer Care


Book Description

"Contemporary medical models focus predominantly on the technical and financial aspects of care. While these are important aspects of care, they fail to include what may be the most critical need of patients and families - that is, the whole-person approach to care where psychosocial and spiritual needs are viewed as essential and just as important as the physical. Cecily Saunders, the founder of hospice, was one of the first to describe the concept of 'total pain', which led to the biopsychosocial and spiritual model of care. In 2014, the World Health Assembly for the WHO passed a resolution which included spiritual care as an essential domain of palliative care, stating that Palliative Care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients "through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual." WHO also noted that "it is the ethical duty of health care professionals" to alleviate pain and suffering, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual and further supported an interdisciplinary model by noting the need for collaboration between professional palliative care providers and support care providers, including spiritual support and counseling"--




The Comprehensive Cancer Center


Book Description

This open access book provides a valuable resource for hospitals, institutions, and health authorities worldwide in their plans to set up and develop comprehensive cancer care centers. The development and implementation of a comprehensive cancer program allows for a systematic approach to evidence-based strategies of prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and palliation. Comprehensive cancer programs also provide a nexus for the running of clinical trials and implementation of novel cancer therapies with the overall aim of optimizing comprehensive and holistic care of cancer patients and providing them with the best opportunity to improve quality of life and overall survival. This book's self-contained chapter format aims to reinforce the critical importance of comprehensive cancer care centers while providing a practical guide for the essential components needed to achieve them, such as operational considerations, guidelines for best clinical inpatient and outpatient care, and research and quality management structures. Intended to be wide-ranging and applicable at a global level for both high and low income countries, this book is also instructive for regions with limited resources. The Comprehensive Cancer Center: Development, Integration, and Implementation is an essential resource for oncology physicians including hematologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, and oncology nurses as well as hospitals, health departments, university authorities, governments and legislators.




Global Perspectives on Cancer


Book Description

Two leading oncologists, along with experts spanning several medical disciplines, shed light on the global pandemic of cancer, particularly the difference in diagnosis, treatment, and care between global communities. Despite advancing globalization and amazing breakthroughs in modern medicine, developing countries continue to struggle with the prevention and treatment of the most common killer in the world today—cancer. Logistical barriers, scarceness of resources, and economic hardships in these regions make the screening, detection, and care of this disease difficult at best. This book is the only one of its kind to review the pandemic of cancer from a global and epidemiological perspective. The work is presented in three sections, focusing on key issues in cancer management, treatment of specific types of the disease, and the difference in medical care between low-, medium-, and high-resource countries. Chapters address the history, incidence, and treatment across nations; presiding cultural attitudes which may delay or prevent treatment in many parts of the world; and the geopolitics of cancer care and funding. Patients and caregivers from all around the globe explain the daily challenges of living with the disease in their nation.




Physical Activity and Cancer


Book Description

This book explores in depth the relation between physical activity and cancer control, including primary prevention, coping with treatments, recovery after treatments, long-term survivorship, secondary prevention, and survival. The first part of the book presents the most recent research on the impact of physical activity in preventing a range of cancers. In the second part, the association between physical activity and cancer survivorship is addressed. The effects of physical activity on supportive care endpoints (e.g., quality of life, fatigue, physical functioning) and disease endpoints (e.g., biomarkers, recurrence, survival) are carefully analyzed. In addition, the determinants of physical activity in cancer survivors are discussed, and behavior change strategies for increasing physical activity in cancer survivors are appraised. The final part of the book is devoted to special topics, including the relation of physical activity to pediatric cancer survivorship and to palliative cancer care.




Cancer Care for the Whole Patient


Book Description

Cancer care today often provides state-of-the-science biomedical treatment, but fails to address the psychological and social (psychosocial) problems associated with the illness. This failure can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect the health of cancer patients. Psychological and social problems created or exacerbated by cancer-including depression and other emotional problems; lack of information or skills needed to manage the illness; lack of transportation or other resources; and disruptions in work, school, and family life-cause additional suffering, weaken adherence to prescribed treatments, and threaten patients' return to health. Today, it is not possible to deliver high-quality cancer care without using existing approaches, tools, and resources to address patients' psychosocial health needs. All patients with cancer and their families should expect and receive cancer care that ensures the provision of appropriate psychosocial health services. Cancer Care for the Whole Patient recommends actions that oncology providers, health policy makers, educators, health insurers, health planners, researchers and research sponsors, and consumer advocates should undertake to ensure that this standard is met.




Global Perspectives in Cancer Care


Book Description

"Contemporary medical models focus predominantly on the technical and financial aspects of care. While these are important aspects of care, they fail to include what may be the most critical need of patients and families - that is, the whole-person approach to care where psychosocial and spiritual needs are viewed as essential and just as important as the physical. Cecily Saunders, the founder of hospice, was one of the first to describe the concept of 'total pain', which led to the biopsychosocial and spiritual model of care. In 2014, the World Health Assembly for the WHO passed a resolution which included spiritual care as an essential domain of palliative care, stating that Palliative Care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients "through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual." WHO also noted that "it is the ethical duty of health care professionals" to alleviate pain and suffering, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual and further supported an interdisciplinary model by noting the need for collaboration between professional palliative care providers and support care providers, including spiritual support and counseling"--




A New Deal for Cancer


Book Description

An unprecedented constellation of experts—leading cancer doctors, policymakers, cutting-edge researchers, national advocates, and more—explore the legacy and the shortcomings from the fifty-year war on cancer and look ahead to the future. The longest war in the modern era, longer than the Cold War, has been the war on cancer. Cancer is a complex, evasive enemy, and there was no quick victory in the fight against it. But the battle has been a monumental test of medical and scientific research and fundraising acumen, as well as a moral and ethical challenge to the entire system of medicine. In A New Deal for Cancer, some of today’s leading thinkers, activists, and medical visionaries describe the many successes in the long war and the ways in which our deeper failings as a society have held us back from a more complete success. Together they present an unrivaled and nearly complete map of the battlefield across dimensions of science, government, equity, business, the patient provider experience, and more, documenting our emerging understanding of cancer’s many unique dimensions and offering bold new plans to enable the American health care system to deliver progress and hope to all patients.




Principles and Practice of Urooncology


Book Description

This evidence-based, state of the art guide to the management of urological malignancies, including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer, is designed to serve as an easy-to-consult reference that will assist in daily decision making and the delivery of optimal care for individual patients within a multidisciplinary setting. Readers will find up-to-date information on patient selection and the full range of treatment modalities, including modern radiotherapy techniques, systemic chemotherapy, surgical procedures (including robotic surgery and other minimally invasive approaches), hormonal therapies, immunotherapy, and focal therapies. With regard to radiotherapy, the coverage encompasses everything from delineation of tumor volumes and organs at risk based on CT simulation through to delivery of stereotactic body radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, tomotherapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, and proton therapy. The authors are leading authorities with international reputations who have been selected for their expertise in the topic that they address. The book will be of value for all practicing urooncologists as well as other oncology fellows and residents interested in urooncology.




Cancer Care in Low-Resource Areas


Book Description

Though cancer was once considered to be a problem primarily in wealthy nations, low- and middle-income countries now bear a majority share of the global cancer burden, and cancer often surpasses the burden of infectious diseases in these countries. Effective low-cost cancer control options are available for some malignancies, with the World Health Organization estimating that these interventions could facilitate the prevention of approximately one-third of cancer deaths worldwide. Effective cancer treatment approaches are also available and can reduce the morbidity and mortality due to cancer in low-resource areas. But these interventions remain inaccessible for many people in the world, especially those residing in low-resource communities that are characterized by a lack of fundsâ€"on an individual or a societal basisâ€"to cover health infrastructure and care costs. As a result, worse outcomes for patients with cancer are more common in low- and middle-income countries compared with high-income countries. Few guidelines and strategies for cancer control consider the appropriateness and feasibility of interventions in low-resource settings, and this may undermine the effectiveness of care. Recognizing the challenges of providing cancer care in resource constrained settings, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine developed a two- workshop series examining cancer care in low-resource communities, building on prior work of the National Academies. The first workshop, held in October 2015, focused on cancer prevention and early detection. The second workshop was held in November 2016, and focused on cancer treatment, palliative care, and survivorship care in low-resource areas. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of this workshop.