The maintenance of health during radiotherapy: a nursing perspective.

Introduction This paper was generated as a result of an invitation to speak on the apparently straightforward topic of maintaining health during a course of radiotherapy administered as a treatment for cancer. It soon transpired that there were almost as many definitions of the word ’health’ as there were people interested in the subject! It became obvious that the concept of health undoubtedly means different things to different people and that, like the term ’quality of life’, health is a word that everyone understands but few can define