The diagnosis of any type of cancer is a frightening, life-altering event for both the patient and their family. The potential for a diminished quality of life for newly diagnosed cancer patients becomes an immediate, pressing concern when confronted with anxiety, fear, pain, the prospect of a long course of treatments that may cause significant side effects, and the possibility that the treatments may not work. It is critically important, however, for cancer patients and their families to address and learn to cope with the physical, emotional, and social issues that, if ignored and left to "fester", can rapidly lead to a significantly reduced quality of life.

Over the years, cancer specialists and other allied health-care professionals have come to realize that addressing a cancer patient's quality of life issues is an integral component of a comprehensive, overall cancer treatment strategy. From a practical perspective, that means developing an effective treatment plan that aims not only to control and/or to eradicate the patient's cancer with medical and/or surgical therapy but, at the same time, also takes into consideration critical issues of supportive care throughout the course of treatment and offers the patient the best chances of maintaining a reasonably high level quality of life. In fact, most cancer specialists now consider supportive care as an essential component of an overall, effective cancer treatment plan.

Factors Affecting Quality of Life in Cancer Patients

Cancer patients are confronted with a variety of physical, emotional, and social issues that, if left unchecked or ignored, can rapidly contribute to a diminished quality of life. In general, some of the more common problems encountered by cancer patients either as a result of the disease itself or as a side-effect of cancer treatments include:

• Sleep disorders
• Fatigue
• Diminished exercise capacity
• Unintentional weight loss
• Psychological stress
• Cancer-related pain

Lack of adequate sleep due to anxiety, stress, pain, or treatment side-effects can lead to severe daytime fatigue that, in turn, can interfere with the ability to function and perform routine activities of daily living. Perhaps now, more than ever before, getting an adequate amount of sleep is critical to enable the body and mind to cope with the additional physical and emotional burdens resulting from cancer and its treatment. If sleep disturbances begin to affect your functional ability and diminish your quality of life, a variety of options are available to deal with the problem. These treatment options include learning new sleep habits (improved sleep hygiene practices); complementary therapies (e.g., relaxation techniques, biofeedback, meditation); and the use of prescription sleep medications. If lack of sleep is affecting your quality of life and interfering with your activities of daily living, talk with your doctor about developing an individualized treatment plan to help improve your quality of sleep.