AUTODETERMINACION EN EL CANCER:el rol de uno mismo/a en los y las supervivientes

Título: THE ROLE OF THE SELF IN HEALTHY CANCER SURVIVORSHIP: A VIEW FROM THE FRONT LINES OF TREATING CANCER ,

De: Block, Keith I.,
Advances: The Journal of the Institute for the Advancement of Health, 07419783, Winter97, Vol. 13, Fascículo 1Base de datos: Academic Search Premier

ABSTRACT. Placing individuals at the helm of their own health care forms the basis for an integrative cancer care program centered around biological and psychosocial interventions. Within the new paradigm labeled biopsychooncology, caring for the whole patient (multidimensional self) entails the systematic integration of conventional therapy, mind-body interventions, therapeutic nutrition, phytomedicines, and physical care strategies. Psychological and biological coping strategies are deemed potentially synergistic. Each component is tailored to the individual, and no part of the program is implemented without the patient's informed and active participation. Four tenets underlie the program: individualized treatment, psychodynamic/psychosocial intervention, medical gradualism, and biopsychooncologic intervention.

This multidimensional definition of self-biological, psychological, psychospiritual-needs to be kept in mind as we probe some of the epidemiological research on how cancer patients can influence their own survival. Epidemiology seeks primarily to determine the probability that certain groups of individuals will develop a particular outcome in the presence of a given factor or exposure, or multiple exposures. I argue here that some of the exposures that influence the course of cancer are based on choices made by the self--choices concerning both external events (choice of particular therapy, for example) and inner "behavior."