| [ Summary ] |
Terminal cancer patients experience not only physical suffering, but must deal with suffering in many forms including mental, social as well as spiritual. If one person is afflicted with cancer, then the whole family is forced to bear the mental and physical burden as well, experiencing thesame feelings of suffering as the patient. Discussed are topics such as notification of cancer diagnosis, communication, ethics problems, and other issues, all of which must be approached with discrimination when caring for terminal cancer patients and their families in relation to conditions such as those seen in palliative care wards. Also discussed from a palliative care physician's point of view is the terminal stage, which has been divided into the early, middle and late stages, including that in close proximity to death. |