Presenter: Lyn Freeman, PhD
Objectives: Participants completing this presentation will be able to:
- Discuss the two challenges most often experienced by cancer survivors after completing their conventional medical care.
- Describe four or more patient themes that emerged from an evidence-based imagery program
- Identify two components of an Imagery program for breast cancer survivors.
Description: In 2006, the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) released its eye-opening quality of life
cancer survivor report. Several trends emerged from their
review that will be of interest to the ten million
survivors in the United States. (1) Post-treatment, cancer
can become a chronic condition that must be managed for a
lifetime. (2) Although life is preserved, many survivors
suffer from late-term and long-term effects of their cancer
treatments. (3) These late-term and long-term effects
impact the quality of their life. (4) Patients are
demanding interventions to address the hidden disabilities
created by their treatments.
In this presentation, Dr.
Freeman will review the most prevalent and troublesome
long-term and late-term side effects of cancer treatments.
She will list the interventions that have some evidence of
potential improvement of those conditions. She will
describe her qualitative research of cancer survivors and
the themes they identified as requirements for an
efficacious imagery program. Finally, she will discuss the
"Envison the Rhythms of Life" imagery program she developed
and the outcomes from her National Cancer Institute-funded
clinical trial of the program. The importance of creating
evidence-based and quality-controlled mind-body programs,
delivered by certified trainers, will be
explored.