Advances in supportive care

Abstract

A range of distressing symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting, dyspnoea and pain, which invariably impair quality of life, may develop in cancer patients as a result of their disease and treatment. The side-effects of cancer treatments place additional burdens on the patient. Patients indicate that they find nausea and vomiting and fatigue to be the most distressing symptoms. The burden of distressing symptoms and the side-effects of cancer treatments may be so great for some patients that they make a decision not to continue with treatment. Developing better methods of managing these complaints is critical for improving both quality of life and treatment outcome. Over the past two decades there have been dramatic advances in supportive care. The most significant advances have occurred in the general approach to symptom management and in the development of new pharmacological agents. Advances have also occurred in non-pharmacological approaches to supportive care and it is now acknowledged that interventions such as patient education and complementary therapies have an important role to play in ameliorating distressing symptoms.

Nonpharmacologic Strategies for Managing Common Chemotherapy Adverse Effects: A Systematic Review

“…6 Adverse effects may be severe enough to impact on patients' decisions about continuing treatment. 7 With chemotherapy increasingly being administered in the ambulatory setting, patients need to be able to self-manage common adverse effects associated with their chemotherapy regimen and to know how to recognize signs that indicate the need for medical attention.…”

Treatment choices in advanced cancer: issues and perspectives

“…Thus, the adverse effects of chemotherapy (previously held to be unacceptable) are seen to be outweighed by the overall benefit to the patient of palliative chemotherapy, and the trade off argument can be said to have shifted in favour of this treatment. Improvements in the prevention and management of adverse effects associated with chemotherapy (such as emesis and infection) that contribute to improved quality of life and help to reduce the lengths of hospital stays also make palliative chemotherapy less of a burden for patients and help to shift the argument further (Redmond, 1996).…”

Influence of Probiotics in Prevention and Treatment of Patients Who Undergo Chemotherapy or/and Radiotherapy and Suffer from Mucositis, Diarrhoea, Constipation, Nausea and Vomiting

“…Huge progress made in the treatment of cancer is not accompanied by the development of methods to prevent the unpleasant side effects of therapy [ 1 , 2 ]. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], the most commonly chosen therapeutic options are radiotherapy and chemotherapy, as a monotherapy or as an adjuvant therapy with surgical intervention.…”

“…Usually, patients suffer from mucositis, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, and vomiting [ 7 ]. Alleviation of them is crucial to the improvement of patients’ comfort as they strongly influence therapy results [ 2 , 8 ]. It was suggested that probiotic administration may help to achieve this goal [ 9 ], particularly as they have shown a protective effect on epithelial cells [ 10 ].…”