ABSTRACT
This chapter considers all the patient's symptoms and all the information available to doctors and assesses the symptoms, signs and information given using this to choose the appropriate remedies for the problem and offers extra information where available and appropriate. Cancer patients are likely to have a number of symptoms and may be taking several different medications. Compliance with medication tends to be worse when several drugs are prescribed, so this may be worth considering, and it may be possible to use one drug to achieve control of more than one symptom. The effects of long-term use of drugs must also be considered, because with long-term administration, adaptive responses may occur. Drugs that either block or stimulate receptors, use carrier molecules to bind to various sites, block channels or depend on enzyme activation will act on all of the sites in the body, not just those of the diseased organ.
