{"id":1478,"date":"2020-11-18T12:13:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youtumor.org\/id-like-to-know-more\/other-problems-for-patients-on-therapy\/can-i-work-and-lead-a-normal-life\/"},"modified":"2021-01-13T18:51:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T17:51:43","slug":"can-i-work-and-lead-a-normal-life","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/id-like-to-know-more\/other-problems-for-patients-on-therapy\/can-i-work-and-lead-a-normal-life\/","title":{"rendered":"CAN I WORK AND LEAD A NORMAL LIFE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yes, definitely, as long as you feel up to it, of course; <\/span><\/strong>i.e., if neither the tumor nor the side-effects of the therapy stop you from doing so. Fortunately, this favorable situation is common. Cancer does not prevent from having a normal life.<\/p>\n\n\n

Then again, patients who are on adjuvant therapy have no visible disease, which means<\/strong><\/span> that any problems they may have can only be caused by the therapy itself. In a good 30-50% of patients, these therapies are well tolerated; in these circumstances, it is strongly advisable to continue as normal a life as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even patients in an advanced stage with metastases (stage 4) may be in excellent <\/strong><\/span>physical condition and can continue to carry out their normal everyday activities, including sport. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Indeed, having a couple of metastatic nodules of 1-2 cm in an internal organ will not generally cause symptoms; and the frequency of severe side-effects of treatment is usually fairly modest (5-20%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it must be remembered that the psychological component plays a very important role.<\/span><\/strong> A patient may well feel very tired or unable to function properly both physically and mentally, regardless of the disease or the side-effects of treatment. In such cases, the general rule is that the patient should do as much or as little as she feels like doing. <\/p>\n\n\n

A very delicate aspect concerns future plans regarding work<\/strong><\/span> when the patient has advanced disease and a limited life expectancy (6-12 months). In such cases we should be very careful not to discourage the patient from making plans, for at least three good reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Firstly, estimates of life expectancy are taken from the average values recorded in clinical studies; these values may not apply to that particular patient, who may still be alive and well after 2 or 3 years (CAN WE PREDICT HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT?<\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Secondly, as we have already said, it is very difficult for doctors to predict how much time the patient has got left if the prognosis is not very short (from a few days to a few weeks) (ANTI-CANCER THERAPIES NO LONGER WORK<\/a><\/span>)<\/li>\n
  3. Finally, being able to plan for the future \u2013 even if it is not a distant future \u2013 may be of precious value to the patient. It is therefore always advisable to support patients in their future work plans.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Yes, definitely, as long as you feel up to it, of course; i.e., if neither the tumor nor the side-effects of the therapy stop you from doing so. Fortunately, this favorable situation is common. Cancer does not prevent from having a normal life. Then again, patients who are on adjuvant therapy have no visible disease, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":1474,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1478","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4701,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1478\/revisions\/4701"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtumor.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}