[The value of supportive therapy in the treatment of malignant tumors]

Supportive care are a strongly connected constituent of the curative and palliative treatment of cancer. They serve for prevention and early diagnosis, respectively, and treatment of complications during therapy and disturbances which may issue from the tumour disease itself. These are especially the results of the insufficiency of the bone marrow which in the last years increasingly moved into the centre of the therapeutic interest. A survey of the present state of the treatment of these and other general complications in patients with malignant neoplasms is given.