Medical economic considerations of supportive cancer care

In an era of increasing cost containment in health care, it has become extremely important to allocate resources as efficiently as possible. This implies that formal health economic considerations are taken into account. One of increasing importance is the field of economic appraisal, which allows to quantify the value for money of medical interventions. This research is extremely useful in the field of supportive care of cancer patients. Economic considerations, social, political and ethical issues will also have to be addressed. The sum of these activities will enable us to make better choices in health care and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to supportive cancer treatment. Cancer patients have physical, social, spiritual and emotional needs. They may suffer from severe physical symptoms, from social isolation, spiritual abandonment, and emotions such as sadness and anxiety, or feelings of deception, helplessness, anger and guilt. In some of them, the disease is rapidly progressing and ultimately they die. Their demanding care evokes intense feelings in health care providers, all the more since these incurable patients represent a challenge, which could be condensed under the heading "the challenge of medical omnipotence". The complexity of the matter, the interdisciplinary approach and the emergence of an increasingly cost conscience health care environment put supportive cancer care in a difficult realm.