Patient-Physician Communication During Outpatient Palliative Treatment Visits

Abstract

The principal goals of palliative cancer treatment are to prolong the patient's life and to alleviate debilitating symptoms of the disease.^1-3 In both cases, health-related quality of life (HRQL) issues, defined in terms of the patient's physical, emotional, and social functioning, and well-being^4,5 may be of central importance in selecting among available treatment options and in monitoring the effects of such treatments over time. An essential condition for optimal palliative cancer treatment is that physicians communicate effectively with their patients to obtain as complete a picture as possible of the patients' physical and psychosocial health status.