Advances in behavioral intervention in comprehensive cancer treatment

This discussion reviews the current status of behavioral intervention with adult and pediatric cancer patients. The goal is to give the front-line clinician a basis for determining which behavioral intervention procedure to incorporate into clinical practice. After defining the term behavioral medicine and describing its new role in comprehensive cancer treatment, the discussion examines the use of behavioral procedures to control aversive side-effects of treatment. Although the control of chemotherapy side-effects is the primary focus (since most of the behavioral research on symptom control has dealt with reduction of nausea and vomiting with chemotherapy), the application of behavioral principles to other side-effects (i.e., anxiety and pain) associated with the aggressive treatment of cancer is assessed. The third topic is behavioral intervention to control child distress during invasive procedures. The discussion ends with a consideration of new directions of research and practice.