TY - JOUR PY - 2018// TI - Cancer and risk of suicide: follow-up and multidisciplinarity may offer opportunities for prevention JO - Recenti progressi in medicina A1 - Ravaioli, Alessandra A1 - Bucchi, Lauro SP - 322 EP - 323 VL - 109 IS - 6 N2 - Suicide rate is two-fold higher among cancer patients than in the general population. General and cancer-related risk factors for suicide are easily identified by caregivers interacting with patients, but with the exception of depression - the strongest one. This hampers the feasibility of screening of patients by the treating personnel. While new treatments tend to make cancer a chronic disease, which exposes patients to prolonged periods of uncertainty about recurrences, two recent advances have improved the possibility to prevent suicide. On the one hand, the emerging concept of cancer survivorship care has placed the identification of long-term consequences of cancer and its treatments, including an increased risk for suicide, among the objectives of patient follow-up. On the other hand, models of multidisciplinary team care have been implemented in several areas of cancer management. Although the psycho-oncologist has a complementary role, a clear definition of its relationship with the multidisciplinary teams facilitates the adoption of screening programmes for the detection of conditions of increased risk for suicide in cancer care facilities.

Language: it

LA - it SN - 0034-1193 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1701/2932.29485 ID - ref1 ER -