- Cancer patient
Although every
disease has itspatient s, to be a cancer patient has a very specific meaning, both to the patients and their relatives and the general public. Often, there is a large amount of misunderstanding surroundingcancer diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.A
diagnosis ofcancer is by no means a death warrant. Rather, it depends completely on the nature of themalignancy whether the patient will die "of" the disease (as inmesothelioma ) or "with" the disease (as in most cases ofprostate cancer ). At present, 50% of all newly diagnosed malignancies are being cured.Receiving the diagnosis of cancer is a secretly harbored fear for many people. In a sense, being diagnosed with a malignancy with an 80% 5-year survival is considered worse by most people than to be diagnosed with
heart failure , which - dependent on its stage - has a much more dismalprognosis .Some malignancies may recur after adequate treatment. Patients who have previously undergone treatment for cancer may worry about new symptoms and whether these may represent a recurrence. Similarly, doctors may be more suspicious of symptoms if they occur in a patient with a previous malignancy.
See also
*
Cancer
*Oncology
*Cancer survivors
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