[Psychological impact of cancer on the family: a review]

Abstract

The impact of cancer on the patient's family and caregivers is important and it can be analyzed in terms of coping strategies. It depends on the patient (age, sex, role ...), the illness (site, stage, state ...), the people (parents, siblings, caregivers ...), the time (diagnosis, treatment, death, after death rehabilitation), the prognosis. The survey of the literature underlines the methodological difficulties met in this complex field and the distress of the family and caregivers at each stage of the illness, even during long term remissions.