Publisher's Synopsis
This report considers what can - and should - be done to comfort patients suffering from the distressing symptoms of advanced cancer. Prepared by nine renowned experts in oncology, neurology, pain management and nursing care, the book draws together the evidence and arguments needed to define clear lines of action, whether on the part of the medical and nursing professions or in the form of national legislation. Throughout, arguments for palliative care take their force from the magnitude of unrelieved suffering currently borne by the majority of terminally ill patients. Although methods for the relief of pain are emphasized, other physical, psychological and spiritual needs for comfort are also included in the report's comprehensive recommendations.;The report opens with a review of global trends in the incidence of cancer and prospects for cure that show why, for many years to come, palliative care will remain the only realistic, humane treatment for many cancer patients. The concepts of palliative care is explained in terms of its concern with quality of life and comfort before death, emphasis on the family as the unit of care, dependence on a teamwork approach, organizational components and relationship to curative interventions.;The relief of cancer pain is considered in two sections. The first reviews the types of cancer pain and factors influencing its severity, and explains the simple, yet highly effective method of pain relief developed by WHO. Because the WHO method requires the use of morphine and codeine, the second section goes through the steps, including legal and administrative procedures, required to assure the adequate availability and use of opioids for medical purposes. Theoretical problems, such as the risk that opioids will be diverted into illicit channels or that patients will become addicted, are soundly refuted.;Subsequent sections concentrate on measures for the relief of other physical symptoms, the psychosocial needs of the patient and family, and the need for spiritual comfort.;A section devoted to ethics provides a number of important statements concerning the legal and ethical distinction between killing the pain and killing the patient, the need to recognize the limits of both medicine and the patient's physical and moral resources, and the ethical responsibility of the society that encourages home care to look after the family care-givers as well as the patient. The report takes a firm stand against the legalization of euthanasia.
