Review: Percieved social support and coping strategies in advanced cancer patients

摘要

The authors report a descriptive, correlational study of advanced cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment. The purpose of the study is to cultivate an improved understanding of the theoretical linkages among perceived social support and caring. The authors define advanced cancer as the stage of the disease where there is no possible cure and only supporting and palliative treatment can be administered. This component of the definition is instrumental in framing the outcomes to be measured - highlighting the issue of what outcomes become significant to patients and practitioners in the absence of a cure for the disease. Focus is typically placed on emotional adjustment to the disease. However, there is a slight paradox in that whilst the disease is constructed as an 'immovable' there is also evidence for the buffering effect of emotional support in advanced cancer in terms of physical as well as emotional health.