Zhongguo fei ai za zhi = Chinese journal of lung cancer
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Zhongguo Fei Ai Za Zhi · May 2009
End of life experience of symptom cluster and their management in Hong Kong chinese patients with lung cancer who receive palliative radiotherapy.
Breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety are distressing symptoms for patients with advanced lung cancer, however, they are not relieved by palliative RT and are often viewed as neglected areas of clinical practice. This paper aims to review definitions of, and explore patients' experiences of, breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety. ⋯ The review of literature also shows that breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety appears to have similar emotional origins. A contemporary approach of using a common pyschoeducational intervention to treat these symptoms together as a cluster in end of life care will be discussed.