Well-planned and conducted cancer therapy involves more than just radiotherapy or brachytherapy. For the entire team of the Amethyst Radiotherapy Center, a holistic approach to treatment is important, taking into account a holistic approach to the patient, combined with all aspects of his life. Doctors, nurses and technicians know that emotions, attitude to the world and way of thinking largely influence the patient's health condition and, therefore, the course of treatment.
Research clearly shows that a well-chosen diet can clearly support the oncological treatment process. Patients who start therapy have caloric deficiencies, mainly protein deficiencies. Meanwhile, during illness, the body needs twice as much protein as in a healthy person, because the cancer consumes large amounts of it. Moreover, cancer patients need a lot of energy to regenerate. While healthy people need one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight, in a person devastated by disease the demand increases up to 2 grams. In the case of radiotherapy, a dietitian can also remedy problems with appetite and food intake, e.g. during radiotherapy for salivary gland cancers or other cancers located in the head and neck region.
At the Amethyst Radiotherapy Center, patients and their families can benefit from help and advice:
- psycho-oncologist,
- dietetics specializing in nutrition supporting the treatment of oncological diseases.
Dietitian support
Proper nutrition during cancer plays an extremely important role - cancer patients are particularly vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies and life-threatening malnutrition. Almost all of them experience some problem with eating during radio- or chemotherapy treatment: they complain about lack of appetite or taste, difficulty swallowing, and pain while eating. A rapid decrease in the patient's body weight and loss of muscle mass means not only less strength to fight the cancer, a greater risk of infection and worse prognosis, but also many complications and a longer stay in the hospital.
Therefore, the Amethyst Radiotherapy Center conducts comprehensive activities aimed at providing dietary care to patients, which include:
- systematic monitoring of the nutrition of patients undergoing irradiation (control of body weight and BMI, interviewing the patient and establishing an individual diet),
- consultations with a dietitian,
- free dietary workshops for patients and their families.
More about nutrition in cancer can be found in the tab For the patient.
Psycho-oncologist support
The first diagnosis, the words: cancer, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, the sound itself arouses anxiety and causes stress. For many patients, contact with a clinic or hospital, the need to undergo subsequent tests, and finally facing the difficult fact of cancer is associated with a level of anxiety and tension that they often cannot cope with. The initial shock is accompanied by many different emotions and feelings - from depression through fear to anger and rage. They are often accompanied by the emotions of loved ones, and all this can result in problems with sleep and appetite, apathy or even depression.
Another important issue is the issue of support provided to loved ones and family. The whole family suffers from cancer. Sometimes loved ones experience the disease more intensely than the patient, sometimes they are overprotective, sometimes they do not talk about the disease at all and behave as if it did not exist at all.
– Some patients try to protect their family, not to burden them, not to show fear, tears or pain – tells Aleksandra Dindorf, psycho-oncologist from the Amethyst Radiotherapy Center. - Not everyone wants or, for various reasons, is able to tell their loved ones about their illness. I have patients who have pregnant or breastfeeding daughters and are afraid that it will be too much stress for them. Sometimes the patient does not talk about the disease, thereby protecting himself. When he talks about his illness to his elderly mother who has a heart condition, he expects that instead of taking care of himself, he will have to take care of her because she will start to worry. There is often a feeling of guilt, remorse, and doubts about the right thing to do. These are difficult dilemmas that I help patients face.
There are still many stereotypes about the incurability of cancer. The word cancer evokes great fear. Each of us has the so-called subjective theories of the disease, ideas about why it appeared and how it will progress. Society's knowledge about diseases and treatments is still scant, to say the least. Even if patients know that they can heal successfully on a rational level, they are still afraid on an emotional level.
Diagnosis is often the moment when we are reminded of our mortality, when we suddenly stop in the rush of everyday life and everything is turned upside down. The most important thing is the patient's comfort and providing him with the help he needs - highlights Aleksandra Dindorf, psycho-oncologist. – Some patients want to talk about their emotions, of which there are many (mainly fear, sadness, anger, guilt), others want to share their reflections and considerations (about life, death, loved ones, themselves, there are as many topics as patients). Others finally want to talk normally with someone who will not look at them through the prism of illness. Sometimes, despite treatment, patients do not feel ready to talk about the disease and they cannot be forced to do so. It happens that the patient is doing well, but has claustrophobia and my help consists in showing relaxation techniques or visualizations that will help him survive the hardship of diagnostic tests and radiotherapy.
A meeting with a psycho-oncologist allows you to look at the changes that have occurred in the patient and the emotions that accompany them. The aim of a psycho-oncologist's work is to improve the patient's quality of life, reduce the level of anxiety, and teach the patient and his family how to cope with stress, but also with the disease, the course of treatment and the side effects of therapy. All this so that a person suffering from cancer and their loved ones develop a strengthening attitude that will help them during and after treatment.
At the Amethyst Radiotherapy Center, psycho-oncologist support may take the form of individual contact with the patient, meetings with the entire family or group therapy. Its impact can be divided into two basic types: providing support (outward impact) and developing resources (inward impact). Each of us has certain resources that are helpful in difficult situations. This incredibly great potential is often forgotten. A psycho-oncologist helps locate and strengthen these resources. The future of oncological treatment, in addition to providing the patient with the care of a multidisciplinary team, is the individualization of treatment due to the specific course of the disease in a given patient. This individualization, apart from the issue of the latest drugs, also largely concerns appropriate psychological support.
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