THE PATIENT WITH MALIGNANT LATEROCERVICAL ADENOPATHIES - AN ACTIVE OR A PASSIVE PARTICIPANT IN MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING?

摘要

The diagnosis of laterocervical adenopathy leads to profound changes in the lives of both the patient and his/her family since adenopathy often represents a consequence of a malignant tumour, with or without genetic filiations. Every neoplastic process has a negative impact on the quality of life directly and indirectly, personally and socially and requires a complex approach to satisfy the personal and social needs of both the patient and his/her family so as to eventually obtain an improvement of the quality of life in the new conditions. The honest yet, at the same time wise communication of the diagnosis with all its implications, of the prognosis as well as of the therapeutic options, represents a key factor in the doctor - patient relation which contributes simultaneously to the achievement of the highest possible degree of conscious autonomy of the patient.(1,4).