“ONCO-AESTETHIC”, A new medical approach to improve quality of life in cancer patients

Abstract

Health-related quality of life is now considered a significant endpoint in studies of outcomes in oncology. Indeed, quality of life valuations in cancer patients may contribute to enhanced treatment and could even be of prognostic value [1]. Nevertheless, the quality of life of people affected by cancer is still neglected: doctors rarely address this aspect, few patients talk about it, and in a great number of the studies still their "well-being" is excluded from the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of cancer therapy. Aesthetics and cancer are two concepts that are kept separate by instinct. It seems almost disrespectful to even imagine that a woman, or even more so a man, who has been diagnosed with cancer still has the desire and time to feel beautiful. But it is a mistake, especially since we too often underestimate how important the psychological aspect and relationships are in a therapeutic process. Early pivotal studies, lasting more than 30 years ago, showed already a positive relationship between some psychosocial and quality of life parameters and survival time in cancer patients [2,3]. Currently, a great number of studies have clearly demonstrated that global quality of life or global health status is associated with prolonged survival time [4].