End-stage head and neck cancer: coping mechanism

Authors

Bogdan Popescu, Carol Davila University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Colțea Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, RomaniaFollow
Oana Paun, Carol Davila University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Colțea Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania
Razvan V. Scăunaşu, Carol Davila University, Department of General Surgery, Colțea Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, RomaniaFollow
Serban V.G. Berteşteanu, Carol Davila University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Colțea Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

Coping mechanisms are patients’ means of adapting to stressful situations and involve psychological and physical changes in behavior. Patients adapt to head and neck cancer in a variety of ways. Head and neck cancers are extremely debilitating, especially in advanced stages of the disease or in end-of-life situations. While an oncology team needs to address the needs of all oncology patients, the advanced terminal patients require special attention. Most of these patients do not cope well with their situation and have a tendency to cease social interactions. Pain is the most frequentlyexperienced medical disability in patients having an end-stage illness experience, and thus an important medical endeavor is to afford dignity to the dying patient facingan incurable disease. In such cases, the medical community should never refuse therapy or to assist a dying patient.In some instances, the patient and family may derive benefit from their religious beliefs.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Popescu, Bogdan; Paun, Oana; Scăunaşu, Razvan V.; and Berteşteanu, Serban V.G. (2017) "End-stage head and neck cancer: coping mechanism," Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22543/7674.42.P9399
Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/jmms/vol4/iss2/3