Chapter 077. Approach to the Patient with Cancer (Part 5)

Making a Treatment Plan From information on the extent of disease and the prognosis and in conjunction with the patients wishes, it is determined whether the treatment approach should be curative or palliative in intent. Cooperation among the various professionals involved in cancer treatment is of the utmost importance in treatment planning. For some cancers, chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus radiation therapy delivered before the use of definitive surgical treatment (so-called neoadjuvant therapy) may improve the outcome, as seems to be the case for locally advanced breast cancer and head and neck cancers. In certain settings in which combined modality...
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Chapter 077. Approach to the Patient with Cancer (Part 5) Chapter 077. Approach to the Patient with Cancer (Part 5) Making a Treatment Plan From information on the extent of disease and the prognosis and inconjunction with the patients wishes, it is determined whether the treatmentapproach should be curative or palliative in intent. Cooperation among the variousprofessionals involved in cancer treatment is of the utmost importance in treatmentplanning. For some cancers, chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus radiation therapydelivered before the use of definitive surgical treatment (so-called neoadjuvanttherapy) may improve the outcome, as seems to be the case for locally advancedbreast cancer and head and neck cancers. In certain settings in which combinedmodality therapy is intended, coordination among the medical oncologist,radiation oncologist, and surgeon is crucial to achieving optimal results.Sometimes the chemotherapy and radiation therapy need to be deliveredsequentially, and other times concurrently. Surgical procedures may precede orfollow other treatment approaches. It is best for the treatment plan either to followa standard protocol precisely or else to be part of an ongoing clinical researchprotocol evaluating new treatments. Ad hoc modifications of standard protocolsare likely to compromise treatment results. The choice of treatment approaches was formerly dominated by the localculture in both the university and the practice settings. However, it is now possibleto gain access electronically to standard treatment protocols and to every approvedclinical research study in North America through a personal computer interfacewith the Internet.2 The skilled physician also has much to offer the patient for whom curativetherapy is no longer an option. Often a combination of guilt and frustration overthe inability to cure the patient and the pressure of a busy schedule greatly limitthe time a physician spends with a patient who is receiving only palliative care.Resist these forces. In addition to the medicines administered to alleviatesymptoms (see below), it is important to remember the comfort that is provided byholding the patients hand, continuing regular examinations, and taking time totalk. 2 The National Cancer Institute maintains a database called PDQ (PhysicianData Query) that is accessible on the Internet under the name CancerNet athttp://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq. Information can be obtained through afacsimile machine using CancerFax by dialing 301-402-5874. Patient informationis also provided by the National Cancer Institute in at least three formats: on theInternet via CancerNet at http://www.cancer.gov/cancer_information/, through theCancerFax number listed above, or by calling 1-800-4-CANCER. The qualitycontrol for the information provided through these services is rigorous. Management of Disease and Treatment Complications Because cancer therapies are toxic (Chap. 81), patient managementinvolves addressing complications of both the disease and its treatment as well asthe complex psychosocial problems associated with cancer. In the short termduring a course of curative therapy, the patients functional status may decline.Treatment-induced toxicity is less acceptable if the goal of therapy is palliation.The most common side effects of treatment are nausea and vomiting (see below),febrile neutropenia (Chap. 82), and myelosuppression (Chap. 81). Tools are nowavailable to minimize the acute toxicity of cancer treatment. New symptoms developing in the course of cancer treatment should alwaysbe assumed to be reversible until proven otherwise. The fatalistic attribution ofanorexia, weight loss, and jaundice to recurrent or progressive tumor could resultin a patient dying from a reversible intercurrent cholecystitis. Intestinal obstructionmay be due to reversible adhesions rather than progressive tumor. Systemicinfections, sometimes with unusual pathogens, may be a consequence of theimmunosuppression associated with cancer therapy. Some drugs used to treatcancer or its complications (e.g., nausea) may produce central nervous systemsymptoms that look like metastatic disease or may mimic paraneoplasticsyndromes such as the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone. Adefinitive diagnosis should be pursued and may even require a repeat biopsy. A critical component of cancer management is assessing the response totreatment. In addition to a careful physical examination in which all sites ofdisease are physically measured and recorded in a flow chart by date, responseassessment usually requires periodic repeating of imaging tests that were abnormalat the time of staging. If imaging tests have become ...