title: Chronic cancer: counseling the individual.
abstract: Advances in medicine significantly improved outcomes for many cancer patients, effectively moving it from an acute disease to a more chronic one. Living with a chronic cancer often prompts an existential search for meaning, as multiple losses impact the individual on a personal and familial level. At the same time, these patients must learn to adapt to the functional and relational changes necessitated by their disease. Two theoretical perspectives, meaning-making and family systems, are useful in understanding the experience of patients with chronic cancer and offering psychosocial interventions aimed at improving overall adjustment.
authors.affiliation: a Social Work, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Kimarie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boerger-Knowles
authors.forename: Tashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ridley
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012947:Social Work / Q000379:methods*