Exploratory study about needs of disease progression in cancer patients

Background: Oncological disease progression can be difficult to manage for physicians, due to therapeutic switch after a previous treatments’ failure, but also because oncologist have to be linked with information about clinical conditions for patient reassurance. Our research considers person an integrated system, looking at fundamental needs of patients, according to theoretical and empirical basis of Neo-functionalism in psychology. Several studies report more unmet needs in patients affected by cancer, despite an increased attention about bad news communication. Previous studies in the field of healthcare have shown that both communication and psychological characteristics of patients a…