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Cancer Cure vs. Cancer Care WASHINGTON (AP) - The single-minded search for a cancer cure has shortchanged patients who need pain relief and better physical and emotional care throughout their treatment, a National Academy of Sciences advisory panel said Tuesday.

The National Cancer Policy Board issued recommendations seeking to improve what it calls palliative care of cancer patients -- care focusing on controlling pain and psychological, social and spiritual stress.

"There's much that needs to be done," reflected Elizabeth Clark, who watched her sister battle cancer for 13 years before dying four years ago.

This type of care has been a neglected area, she said, especially the social needs of patients and their families. "That's one that needs a great deal of attention, even if we get pain under control."

"There were times when my sister's care was wonderful and there were times when it did not meet her needs," said Clark.

"There are many examples of people whose pain is not managed well at the end of life," she added. When another relative lay dying, she said, "it took a while to get the doctor to agree to prescribe the level of pain medication needed."

The doctor was afraid of giving an overdose, she said, "but the man was dying in tremendous pain."

"There are times when people need an advocate to get the care they need," said Clark, head of the National Association of Social Workers.

Ellen Stovall, a member of the panel that wrote the report and president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, said the study "is very specifically focused on ... managing and controlling the side effects, symptoms and sometimes the disease itself. It basically says we should be always delivering the most appropriate care for people with cancer."

While advances have been made in curing some cancers, half of all patients diagnosed with the disease will die within a few years, a toll of more than a half-million American lives annually, said the panel.

"In accepting a single-minded focus on research toward cure, we have inadvertently devalued the critical need to care for and support patients with advanced disease and their families," the board said in its report.

As a result, cancer patients with significant distress "ranging from existential anguish to anxiety and depression" are not readily identified and given treatment.

"There are no villains in this piece but ourselves and our culture," the panel concluded.

Among the problems it cited were the separation of hospice care from programs offering life-prolonging treatment, inadequate training and standards for health-care professionals in treating dying patients, disparities in care for minorities, and the low level of spending on research in palliative care.

Associated Press (c) iSyndicate

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