A step forward in addressing cancer survivorship in the Asia-Pacific region
Raymond Javan Chan1,2,3, Alexandre Chan4,5, Patsy Yates6,7
1School of Nursing and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. raymond.chan@qut.edu.au.
Abstract:
Cancer survivorship is being increasingly recognized as an important component of cancer care. This commentary reviews the key findings reported in the recent BMC Medicine publication of the ACTION study, which focuses on the health-related quality of life and psychological distress in 5249 cancer survivors in eight low- and middle-income countries in Southeast Asia. The study identified that more than one-third of survivors experience at least mild levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and that poorer outcomes in quality of life, anxiety, and depressive symptoms are linked to a number of clinical and demographic factors. Such data provides an important foundation to inform cancer policy and service planning in Asia. Future research efforts are required to further understand the needs of cancer survivors in this region and determine interventions to improve outcomes for this population.Please see related article: http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-016-0768-2 .
Related Concept Videos
Cancer Survival Analysis
Cancer Prevention
Some...
Treatment Resistant Cancers
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...
Cancer
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...

