Summary:
Despite the significant advances in oncology achieved during the last two decades more than half
the patients die as a result of the tumour or associated complications. When we are unable to cure
the patient, he is described as incurable. The word is however frequently conceived in a distorted
way, i.e. unfit to be treated. If the objective of our treatment is only the tumour. Then active
treatment really ends with the possibilities of antiumour treatment. If however the objective of
our therapeutic efforts is man - the oncological patient, we must conceive active treatment and
care as a certain continuous process where from the very beginning anti-tumourous treatment is
combined by supporting and palliative treatment as regards bodily symptoms, psychosocial and
existential needs. Termination of anti-tumourous treatment then does not imply termination of
active treatment, in conjunction with changed therapeutic objectives only the ratio and relative
importance of different elements of supportive treatment changes. The presented work deals with
some unfortunate consequences when the term unfit to be treated is mistaken for incurable and
is the concept of a model of an active team approach to incurable patients.
Key words:
Incurable - Unfit to be treated - Active treatment - Team approach
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