Current problems in cancer
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Pain management, nutritional support, and psychosocial support are fundamental services that enhance patients' ability to cope with their cancer and its therapy. The common goal of symptom prevention mandates that each of these supportive services be provided to all patients throughout their cancer experience. Comprehensive cancer pain management begins with identifying the origin of all of the patient's pains and treating each one specifically. ⋯ Principles of nutritional support in patients with cancer include an awareness of the problem of malnutrition and its impact on performance status, quality of life, prognosis, and treatment; identification of those patients at risk; prophylactic versus therapeutic intervention; and analysis and management of the specific impediment(s) to adequate nutrient intake and absorption. The primary goals for nutritional support in cancer patients are prevention of weight loss and maintenance of adequate protein status. Appreciation of practical issues of nutritional support will enable the practicing physician to achieve these goals using primarily oral nutrition options.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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Review Case Reports
Surgical stabilization of pathological neoplastic fractures.
The most important factor to consider in deciding between treatment options in the management of metastatic bone disease is the level of the patient's dysfunction and pain. Severe dysfunction or pain demands a treatment that predictably leads to a quick resumption of the painless activities of daily living. A treatment that predictably will restore function in months may seem reasonable in patients with a normal remaining life span, but is untenable if those months represent a high percentage of remaining life span, as they do in metastatic disease afflicted patients. ⋯ Lesions that predictably will fracture short term, involve joints, or will cause catastrophic consequences if fracture occurs should be strongly considered for surgical stabilization. Other factors to consider are the location of the metastasis, the primary tumor, and the expected response to nonoperative therapy. The patient becomes a surgical candidate for the above reasons and not because of any estimated life span.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)