SELECTED VARIABLES RELATED TO THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN CANCER

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present cancer as a serious, life-threatening chronic disease that strongly impacts all aspects of a patient’s quality of life, including the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual ones. This theoretical article describes selected variables related to the quality of life of a cancer victim during the processes of diagnosis and treatment. These variables include stress and coping with the specific stress of having cancer, appraisal of the disease, acceptance of illness, and social support. Also discussed is the role of the variables listed above in quality of life in cancer and current research on these connections. Implications of the presented theory and research indicate that cancer affects quality of life in all areas and that the process of adaptation to the disease is facilitated by adopting adaptive coping strategies, appraising the disease as a challenge rather than as a threat or loss, accepting the inevitable limitations to everyday life, and seeking and using various sources of social support.