According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), cancer is the general name for a group of more than 100 diseases. These diseases has many different causes (American Cancer Society, n.d.). Cancer affect millions of lives each year from the very young to the elderly. It does not just affect the person with cancer, but it also affect their love ones and friends. Since there are so many different types of cancer, the type of care is based on stage of cancer and type of cancer. The approach to care should be multidisciplinary. Research have shown that a team approach is more effective than only an individual health care provider providing care. Cancer care should also be inclusive and individualized. When patients are included in their decision making of their own care and treatment, they tend to have better outcomes. Cancer should not be generalize because cancer means something different to everyone and everyone experiences cancer differently. Therefore, a cancer patient medical care should be individualized and approached from a multidisciplinary team perspective.
When diagnosing and staging cancer, the medical care should be individualized. However, there are
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Side effects of radiation therapy include fatigue, skin problems, alopecia, and eating problems. For instance, fatigue from radiation may be caused by anemia, dehydration, or chronic or hypoxia and skin in the treatment area may look irritated, red, blistered, swollen, sunburned, or tanned. Over time, the skin may become dry, flaky, itchy, or it may peel. Radiation therapy also cause alopecia, however, hair is loss only in the area of treatment. For example, radiation to the head will cause hair loss on the head, including lashes and eyebrows, but will not cause hair loss on the head if treatment is done on the hip. In addition, radiation to the digestive system or even the neck and head can cause eating and digestion