Multidisciplinary or Multifaceted Approaches to Cancer Care

Approach to Care
[Student’s Name]
[Institution]

Approach to Care
Introduction
A multidisciplinary or a multifaceted approach to cancer care has been shown to be necessary in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients (Ko & Chaudhry, 2002). Besides treating cancer, there are a number of non-cancer issues that need to be considered including health behaviors, coexistent illnesses and preventive measures to improve the patients’ quality of life. With the emerging treatments and novel technologies, approach to cancer care has increasingly become complex and comprehensive and this has significant benefits to patients by providing accurate diagnosis, staging and conclusive treatment. Some of the new technologies that have enabled this change include molecular therapies, robotics and other new treatment methods. Patient-centered care approach has also been lauded in providing individualized treatment, patient empowerment, improved communication, and fast and coordinated care (Cancer Treatment Centers of America, 2017). These new approaches have seen a change in kidney and bladder cancer diagnosis and staging as well as changes in the treatment plans for testicular, prostate, kidney and bladder cancer (UNC School of Medicine, 2010). In this paper, diagnosis and cancer staging, complications of cancer, the side effects resulting from treatment and the modalities to reduce the psychological and physical effects of cancer will be discussed.
Diagnosis and Cancer Staging
Cancer patients often present with a number of symptoms with most of them not related to cancer, but other complications or due to benign tumors (National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2017). Physical examinations and other procedures or tests are done to confirm the cause of symptoms. Staging is carried out to establish the extent of the growth within tissues. Some cancers can be staged using histological tests, blood tests and the risk factors. Staging is often carried out twice: before treatment or clinical staging and after treatment or pathological staging. The American Joint Committee on Cancer maintains a system of staging commonly used by doctors known as the TNM. TNM system describes different areas of growth, with T denoting tumor, N denoting nodes and M representing metastasis. Each form of cancer has its unique stage groups depending on where it has spread or grown. There are 4-5 groups per every cancer and these groups are denoted using the Roman numerals beginning with 0 or stage I and ending with stage IV (National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2017). Patients meeting a certain stage group criteria will have similar prognosis or disease outcome, with earlier stages having better prognosis. However, since doctors define the stages from information obtained from thousands of patients, thee stages only offer average outcomes and may not provide an accurate outcome for one patient.
Complications of Cancer
Cancer patients experience a number of complications, with some caused by the disease itself and the treatment administered. For instance, while not all cancers can be said to be painful, pain is most common complication related to cancer and cancer treatment (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). Administering pain medicat...