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The psychological and social consequences of having a diagnosis of cancer can continue beyond the initial year of diagnosis. However, very few empirical studies examine the long-term adjustment of cancer survivors and the factors that promote survivors' well-being. This paper presents an 18 month follow-up study of 26 women who were treated for various types of cancer at a major medical center in the United States. They completed questionnaires during the initial treatment phase of the illness and 18 months liner. The questionnaire consisted of standardized scales measuring relationship factors (i.e., mutuality, silencing-the-self schemas, and relationship-focused coping) and psychosocial well-being (i.e., quality of life, depression, self-care agency). The results of the follow-up study revealed that the women's psychosocial well-being changed for the better between Time 1 and Time 2. while their relationship factors remained constant. Only one relational Factor, silencing-the-self beliefs, at Time 1, was significantly correlated with a well-being variable at Time 2. However, relationship factors at Time 2 were significantly correlated with psychosocial wellbeing at Time 2, indicating that relational Factors continue to play a significant role in the sample's psychosocial adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the therapeutic relationships between health care professionals, complementary therapists and people with cancer. Alongside this are reports of increasing numbers of patients using complementary therapies to address the psychological and emotional impact of cancer, often without the knowledge of health care professionals. There are shared concerns about patient advocacy, particularly in terms of self-care strategies, the emotional needs of patients, ownership of the body and the role of holism in health care. The rationale for the present study came about as a result of the growing burden placed upon cancer services in Great Britain by government reforms impacting upon oncology centers in the British National Health Service as embodied in a series of Department of Health White Papers. Coupled with this is the growing advocacy of patients and self-help groups who are aware of their rights as set out by the Patient's Charter, with its developments in clinical accountability, access to information, the right of informed consent to treatments, and more accessible channels of complaint and litigation.

This paper describes a social work service to critically ill non-hospitalized cancer patients based upon Heimler's theory and method of Human Social Functioning. Despite severe constraints arising from the physical deterioration and emotional distress of the patients and certain aspects of the treatment setting, efforts were made to validate the effectiveness of the service through pre- and post-intervention measures of patients' moods and single system experiments. The findings indicate that the Heimler method was effective in helping patients overcome their sense of helplessness and distressing emotional reactions to terminal illness. A quality assurance program and a multidisciplinary health care team are proposed as the means of establishing palliative care for terminally ill patients that incorporates social work services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensity modulated radiotherapy treatment (IMRT) design is the process of choosing how beams of radiation will travel through a cancer patient to treat the disease, and although optimization techniques have been suggested since the 1960s, they are still not widely used. Instead, the vast majority of treatment plans are designed by clinicians through trial-and-error. Modem treatment facilities have the technology to treat patients with extremely complicated plans, and designing plans that take full advantage of the technology is tedious. The increased technology found in modem treatment facilities makes the use of optimization paramount in the design of successful treatment plans. The goals of this work are to I) present a concise description of the linear models that are under current investigation, 2) develop the analysis certificates that these models allow, and 3) suggest future research avenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chapter of the book "Labrador Days: Tales of the Sea Toilers," by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell is presented. It discusses the experience of a doctor when he went to the Deep-Water Creek to check an old Englishman with cancer. It highlights the importance of being helpful and stresses that the largest payment for a service is not the amount of money being paid but the happiness it could bring to the person who needs the service.