[Assessment of work capacity and occupational rehabilitation in curatively treated tumor patients]

Cure and long survival of cancer patients are often accompanied by reductions of performance and vocational handicaps due to the treatment or due to the cancer itself. These reductions vary according to the kind of cancer, the different therapies and the different doses as well. There is a considerable risk of late effects of chemo- and radiotherapy that can be evaluated more precisely today than in the past. Rehabilitation is able to reduce or even to prevent or compensate these reductions of performance and vocational handicaps. Rehabilitation basing on roborating measures is not suitable for these possibilities and should be given up to the benefit of a more flexible rehabilitation of cancer patients being determined by the extent of impairment and functional deficiency. This rehabilitation work includes the consideration of vocational handicaps as well.