Living and dying with incurable cancer: a qualitative study on older patients' life values and healthcare professionals' responsivity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In ageing Western societies, many older persons live with and die from cancer. Despite that present-day healthcare aims to be patient-centered, scientific literature has little knowledge to offer about how cancer and its treatment impact older persons' various outlooks on life and underlying life values. Therefore, the aims of this paper are to: 1) describe outlooks on life and life values of older people (≥ 70) living with incurable cancer; 2) elicit how healthcare professionals react and respond to these.

Methods

Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 12 older persons with advanced cancer and two group interviews with healthcare professionals were held and followed by an analysis with a grounded theory approach.

Results

Several themes and subthemes e

SUBMITTER: van Gurp JLP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7372747 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature