Psychological Aspects fo the Management of Adolescents with Malignancy

The approach to total patient care in a teenager with malignant disease represents one of the greatest challenges to any physician. To bridge the generation gap and communicate in an area of medicine where we cannot always cure, but often only palliate, guide, comfort and listen, is often difficult for we physicians who are so often taught only how to win therapeutic battles. Malignancy is the leading medical cause of death in the 10-21 year age group in the United States. Leukemia, Hodgkin\u27s disease, bone and brain tumors are the most commonly encountered forms of cancer during this period (Heald, 1960)