Vnitr Lek 2001, 47(8):588-590

[Incurable oncological patient?].

O Sláma, J Vorlícek: Interni hematoonkologická klinika Fakultní nemocnice Brno.

Despite the significant advances in oncology achieved during the last two decades more than half the patients die as a result of the tumour or associated complications. When we are unable to cure the patient, he is described as incurable. The word is however frequently conceived in a distorted way, i.e. unfit to be treated. If the objective of our treatment is only the tumour. Then active treatment really ends with the possibilities of anti-tumour treatment. If however the objective of our therapeutic efforts is man - the oncological patient, we must conceive active treatment and care as a certain continuous process where from the very beginning anti-tumourous treatment is combined by supporting and palliative treatment as regards bodily symptoms, psychosocial and existential needs. Termination of anti-tumourous treatment then does not imply termination of active treatment, in conjunction with changed therapeutic objectives only the ratio and relative importance of different elements of supportive treatment changes. The presented work deals with some unfortunate consequences when the term unfit to be treated is mistaken for incurable and is the concept of a model of an active team approach to incurable patients.