The Role of Family and Care Givers of Cancer Survivors in Patient Management

authors:

avatar Mohammad Esmaeil Akbari ORCID 1 , *

Cancer Research Center, Shohada Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

how to cite: Akbari M E. The Role of Family and Care Givers of Cancer Survivors in Patient Management. Int J Cancer Manag. 2015;8(5):e4302. https://doi.org/10.17795/ijcp-4302.

Growing survivorship rates and some economical and scientific elements are creating a burden on families, caregivers, spouses, children, friends, patients, sibling and the people who are on the front lines battling cancer alongside their diagnosed loved one.

Depending on the stage of the disease and kind of treatment, the management of cancer patients presents numerous physical, psychological, economical, social, and even spiritual demands on this caregivers especially family members.

As a result of new improvements in cancer diagnosis and management, informal caregivers are likely to provide more complex care for a longer period of time.

The range of care about physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspect made it more complicated for caregivers.

For many cancer patients the most significant psychosocial stresses is unwanted aloneness which occurs at time of diagnosis and during the treatment period and after completing the biological treatment cancer.

It is necessary for caregivers, and patients’ families in particular that be well empowered for such kind of responsibility and be away from the burnout which is not rare for the care givers.

Nowadays the patients, their families, and relatives are important members of the team for managing the patient that may not be missed and should be empowered by the other technical members of team.

Mohammad E. Akbari

Professor of Surgical Onclogy

Chairman & Editor in Chief