Identifying and predicting behaviour outcomes in cancer patients undergoing curative treatment.
A lot of emphasis is now being placed in early identification of 'distress', a state that lies between the feelings of sadness and apprehension, and clinically defined syndromes. It is assumed that an intervention at this stage will check the progression along the continuum in cancer patients. We have been working in global distress in cancer patients undergoing multimodality treatment with curative intent, for over 5 years. It all started with the generation of a hypothesis which led to the development of the 'Distress Inventory for Cancer', its refinement, and finally to modelling distress. This article gives a brief overview of our work on distress as conceptualised by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in 1998, adopted and modified by us using informal patient interviews, expert Delphi exercise and structured patient interviews.
Thomas
Bejoy Cherian
BC
Department of Surgical Oncology, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, India.
Pandey
Manoj
M
Ramdas
Kunnambath
K
Thomas
Immanuel
I
Changat
Manoj
M
Nandamohan
Vasudevanpillai
V
Nair
Madhavan Krishnan
MK
D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests