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Introduction

Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street Southwest, Rochester, MN 55905

CANCER OVER the last century has consistently been amongst the most feared diagnoses. Oncologists, the physicians who classically have been most intimately involved with the care of patients with cancer, provide expertise with regard to surgery, radiation therapy, and cytotoxic chemotherapy. In addition to providing these anticancer therapies, oncologists are commonly called to care for patients with cancer in ways other than trying to directly kill/eliminate cancer cells.

How does an oncologist honestly, yet in a compassionate manner, tell patients and their families that things are not going well; that there is no good remaining anticancer therapy to give; that it is time to focus primarily on symptom control, not anticancer therapy; that resuscitation is not recommended in the event of a cardiopulmonary arrest; and about other end-of-life issues? How do oncologists deal with the emotional issues they themselves have when they deal with patients with end-of-life issues? These questions are addressed in this collection of manuscripts. In addition, this collection also addresses cancer survivorship issues and issues related to hospice care and symptom control.

The works in this collection were all published between January 2000 and December 2002 in a special section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology entitled, "The Art of Oncology: When the Tumor is Not the Target." This section of the journal was inspired by work done when the 1997–1998 President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Dr. Robert Mayer, convened a task force to study how oncologists deal with end-of-life care for their patients. This task force concluded that there was room for improvement in the care of patients as they approached the end of their lives. An outcome recommendation from this task force was that this issue could nicely be highlighted in a special section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Although the Journal of Clinical Oncology is primarily geared for oncology physicians, it was recognized, at the initiation of this section of the journal, that the issues addressed would be applicable for multiple other groups, including non-oncology physicians, nurses, other health care providers, and students.

There is clearly some medical jargon in these ensuing pieces, some of which might not be readily understood by patients, their families, and the lay public in general. Nonetheless, these pieces were developed with the thought that they could be, and should be, understood by the lay public. Anecdotal experience suggests that patients and their families do actually benefit from reading this Anthology.

Different selected pieces in this Anthology may be particularly applicable to various readers. In an effort to allow readers to pick and choose essays that might be of interest to them, the pieces have been segregated into four main topic areas (ie, end-of-life issues, oncologists dealing with emotional issues, hospice/symptom control, and cancer survivorship issues). In addition, a short précis summarizing each essay has been included in the Table of Contents.

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Loprinzi, C. L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Loprinzi, C. L. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?