Cancer Report Sample

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Executive Summary

This report provides an insight into cancer, the life threatening ailment. It looks at what is cancer, the prime reasons behind cancer, the symptoms, and the current treatment available. It looks at how cancer diagnosis is made today and how the patient and his family need to be better informed. There is need to implement new technologies and IT solutions for better spread and sharing of knowledge so as to improve the coordination between the patient, his family, the heath care providers and the care team.

Introduction

Cancer leads to an out-of-control cell growth, and when those cells divide in an uncontrolled manner, they damage the other parts of the body. There are more than hundred types of cancers, depending on the kind of cells that get affected. The uncontrolled division forms lumps that are known as tumors. The abnormal cell division interferes with the working of digestive, nervous, and circulatory systems. Cancerous cells can stay in on location row can move to other parts of the body. The malignant, tumors are the most dangerous as they can move throughout the body via the blood or lymph systems. In the process, they can destroy healthy tissue and spreads to other parts of the body. Normal cells follow a programmed cell death. However, when this process breaks down, the cancer develops as the cells grow irrepressibly and do not die (WebMD 2015).
Cancer symptoms will range, depending on the location of the cancer as well as which parts of the body it has spread to. Some cancers can be easily felt through the skin. It is possible that the patient feels excessive sweating, fever, fatigue or an unexplained weight loss as the cancerous cells are interfering with the normal body functioning (Medical News today 2015).

Findings

Cancer diagnosis can be stressful. However, if a patient is well informed and better educated on the issue, he can certainly take the right decisions pertaining to the disease and its treatment. Sometimes one has to make difficult decisions, and it can be taxing to cope up with the consequences of the illness. It has been found that having the right information helps the cancer patients to understand the disease and proceed further with confidence. The cancer patients need information about the spread of the disease, the chances of the cure, the treatments available and the side effect of the treatments. They are also curious to know about the effect of the disease on the relation with family and friends as well as how the disease is going to impact their daily activities. There are concerns regarding self-care and sexual issues (Ankem 2005).
More recent research shows that cancer patients make use of a number of information sources to learn about the illness, adjust and cope. While medical professionals such as physicians, nurses and radiotherapy staff are well-informed sources that the patient can rely on, he often resorts to other resources that may not be that reliable or helpful.

Recommendation

There are a number of information sources available for the cancer patients. The best sources are the physicians, nurses and the staff for chemotherapy and radiotherapy that can provide the important information to the patients. Research shows that patients try to get information from web, other cancer patients, read magazines and watch television shows on cancer.
As the cancer care system can get increasingly complex, what is needed is a well-coordinated cancer care that is patient-centered. The patients and their families often complain about lack of information and psychosocial support as well as uncoordinated care. One can look at the role of information technology and its advancements in helping health care providers, the patients, and their families. There are both difficulties and opportunities related to informatics innovations in providing high-quality cancer care.
One cannot undermine the importance of IT in improving the patient-centered care delivery. Multiple studies have documented as to how developing IT-enabled solutions have raised the satisfaction bar of providers and patients. IT solutions and the networks share their performance results and awareness of their performance and give their conclusions on the best practices and tools for quality improvement in cancer care. IT should be used as a strong foundation for patient-centric care (Clauser et al. 2011).

Conclusion

With the right and timely information that are responsive to the needs of clinicians, and patients can improve the effectiveness of care coordination and patient experience. IT solutions need to be deployed in such a manner that it offers a positive communication throughout care systems. It is essential to embrace new technologies so as to enhance and adapt to the changing roles and relationships between patient, doctors, and their care teams. Patients cannot treat their cancer on their own, and one needs to recognize the interdependencies to make the best use of IT solutions.

References

Ankem, K. 2005, "Use of information sources by cancer patients: results of a systematic review of the research literature", Information Research, vol. 11, no. 3.
Clauser, S.B., Wagner, E.H., Aiello Bowles, E.J., Tuzzio, L. & Greene, S.M. 2011, "Improving modern cancer care through information technology", American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 40, no. 5 Suppl 2, pp. S198-S207.
Medical news today. (2015). What Is Cancer? What Causes Cancer?. Available: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology//. Last accessed 23 april.
WebMD. (2015). Cancer Health Center. Available: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/. Last accessed 23 April.