ABSTRACT
In 1976, Weisman and Worden of Project Omega at Massachusetts General Hospital described the occurrence of a period of psychological turmoil in cancer patients and termed it existential plight: The concept of existential plight is not a mere metaphor, but a distinct phase of cancer to which almost all patients are subjected. Quite literally, it is a luckless predicament in which one's very existence seems endangered. For some patients, the plight is very transient and scarcely troublesome. For others, it is a turning point because cancer aggravates or elicits a host of psychosocial problems which would not otherwise be there. Even unrelated personal and interpersonal events may require different coping strategies than those customarily used. The chapter examines in improving the survival times of patients who have malignant disorders such as lymphomas, osteogenic and other sarcomas, leukemias, breast cancers, and some lung cancers has now produced repetitive existential plight.
