5.4.1 Supportive care
Patients with low-grade lymphomas may experience multiple lines of treatment over many years and therefore benefit from reassessment of their supportive care needs:
- at diagnosis
- on an ongoing basis during monitoring
- prior to each subsequent line of
This may be encapsulated in the prehabilitation framework (see 3.6.1 Prehabilitation) and in the supportive care principles during active treatment phase (outlined in 4.5.1 Supportive care).
See validated screening tools mentioned in Principle 4 ‘Supportive care’. Additionally, the ‘Cancer Survivors Unmet Needs (CaSun)’ is another validated screening tool that may help health professionals to identify the unmet needs of patients during survivorship.
A number of specific challenges and needs may arise for cancer survivors:
- financial and employment issues (such as loss of income and assistance with returning to work, and the cost of treatment, travel and accommodation)
- appointing a substitute decision-maker and completing an advance care directive
- legal issues such as completing a
For more information on supportive care and needs that may arise for different population groups, see Appendices A, B and D.