[Roles of clinical psychologists in cancer chemotherapy]

Cancer patients face a variety of problems and undergo psychological turbulence during the clinical course of their disease. In particular, problems related to treatment, such as chemotherapy, can pose a great burden and place the patients in an unstable status, involving both anxiety and expectation related to problems faced in daily life and the unreliability of the therapeutic effects. To cope with the various psychological problems experienced by cancer patients, individual counseling, group therapy, and behavioral therapy, including progressive muscle relaxation training and autonomic training, are employed, depending on the situation of each individual patient. Clinical psychologists participating in cancer treatment need a basic knowledge and understanding of the pathological characteristics of cancer, methods of treatment, and the characteristic clinical course of various cancers, in order to be in close contact and maintain communication with physicians, nurses, and other medical staff, and to provide the support demanded by the patients and their family through a variety of approaches.