Chemotherapy Plus Empowerment Helps Patients with Cancer.

Teaching self-management helps quality of life.

Providing palliative care at the same time that advanced cancer patients are undergoing treatment improves their quality of life and mood according to new study  in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Palliative care is typically defined as care that helps to make symptoms less severe or intense, or allows the patient to find temporary comfort with a certain procedure or treatment.

The study included 322 patients randomly selected to receive either usual cancer care or a palliative care program consisting of four weekly educational sessions followed by monthly sessions until they died or the study ended. The palliative program was designed to encourage patient self-management and empowerment.

The patients' quality of life, symptom intensity and mood were assessed at the start of the study, at one month, and then every three months until death or study completion.

The results indicate that patients in the palliative care program demonstrated higher quality of life, lower depressed mood, however showed limited effect on symptom intensity scores and use of resources in intervention relative to those receiving usual cancer care.   The intervention had no effect on the number of days in the hospital and ICU, the number of emergency department visits, or anti-cancer treatment because the proportions of participants in each group receiving these therapies were similar.

Regarding patients' symptom intensity, the researchers concluded that  improvement of the condition is limited likely because usual care participants also reported relatively low symptom intensity scores compared with patients with advanced cancer in other studies.

Therefore, it may be unrealistic to expect to reduce the cancer presentation further in the setting of progressive disease.  However the study suggests that a person with advanced cancer may experience less depression and enjoy "better days" more frequently and function better, and enjoy a better attitude  as a result of palliative care. 

The study did not describe just what exactly went into the educational sessions.

Prior studies have shown that cancer treatment does not necessarily reduce a patient's cardiovascular fitness, which was an exciting finding, as prior myths existed that suggested otherwise. 

There is a growing amount of evidence that cancer survivors can do well, even though the road ahead may be challenging.

It has been our experience that many people at some level of their consciousness acknowledge a 'mind-body-spirit connection'.   Certainly, philosophers and psychologists of the past have written plentiful on the subject. 

However, one program that we definitely recommend whether ill or healthy is the Silva Program.  Buy it, use it, and benefit from it.

You'll be glad you did.