Approach to Care: Cancer

Approach to Care: Cancer
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Approaches to Cancer Care
Cancer as a disease impacts many people globally, for example in the United Kingdom and Wales it is estimated that approximately 250,000 people are diagnosed with cancer annually. Moreover, an additional over one million people present with symptoms attributed to cancer CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011).
In addition to treatment, cancer patients expect to be heard, be treated humanely, provided quality information of their condition, understand their treatment options, have informed consent, emotional and financial support just to mention a few CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011). To meet these needs, several cancer care approaches have been developed and include; standard treatment, clinical trials, palliative or supportive care, and hospice or home care CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011).
Standard treatment is the most recent approach to cancer care and also the most effective. This approach depends on several aspects of cancer that are; the type, the spread, the proteins involved, the cancer markers or the affected genes CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011). The focus is controlling the disease especially to patients with advanced cancer. The patient here has a choice to stop or continue with treatment that is usually directed to the disease and involves surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy in isolation or combined CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011).
Clinical trials comprise of controlled studies on volunteers. It involves conducting tests for new drugs and treatment methods to determine their effectiveness compared to standard treatment approaches CITATION Ame11 \l 1033 (American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2011). When this is done on patients with advance cancer, it helps other cance...