Supportive Oncology

At the University of Chicago Medicine, we deliver compassionate care for our cancer patients. Supportive oncology provides the following outpatient services to support you and your family during cancer treatment:

Palliative Care

Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms and stressors of serious illness. Throughout your treatment, a team of doctors, nurses and other providers delivers this care to improve quality of life for both you and your family. We work closely with the oncology team to provide an extra layer of support and assist with care coordination with other supportive services. Comprehensive palliative care consultation includes assessment and management of patients' needs, including:

Advance care planning
Anxiety and depression
Constipation and diarrhea
Fatigue
Loss of appetite
Nausea and vomiting
Physical pain
Problems with sleep
Shortness of breath
Screening and referral for emotional, psychological, spiritual care and financial counseling

Cancer Nutrition

Early nutrition intervention, including diet education and nutrition counseling and assessment, plays an important role in cancer treatment. We encourage you to make an appointment if you have any diet questions or are experiencing any of these symptoms:

Difficulty chewing/swallowing
Decreased appetite/oral intake
Dry mouth
Persistent diarrhea, nausea or vomiting
Problems with feeding tubes
Weight loss

Physical Occupational Therapy

Physical/occupational therapy services can help you minimize secondary symptoms and maintain your functional independence and quality of life. Our medical providers can address many symptoms and issues, including:

Impairments

Fatigue
Neuropathy
Pain
Range of motion
Scar management
Swelling/lymphedema
Weakness

Functional Limitations

Decreased endurance
Diminished quality of life
Difficulty walking
Inability to dress, feed or care for one’s self
Loss of independence
Risk of falling

Social Work Services

Our licensed clinical social workers offer support to help you and your family adjust to diagnosis and treatment, define and maintain your quality of life, and cope with life changes. We work in close collaboration with psychology/psychiatry services. Our team also offers assistance in completing advance directives such as the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.

Our social workers also can provide information and referral for resources related to:

Cancer support groups and community-based resources
Financial assistance programs
Help at home
Home palliative care or hospice care
Information about disability or public benefits
Mental health assessment and treatment
Referrals to cancer center insurance specialists
Short-term lodging for out-of-town patients
Transportation

Psychology/Psychiatry Services

Psychological and psychiatric services are available during cancer treatment and across the continuum of care (inpatient and outpatient). These services are provided by a multidisciplinary team involving psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, and includes:

Screening for psychological distress for all new patients
Identifying appropriate psychological services based on these screens
Integrating psychiatric services to address diagnostic and medical management of symptoms
Managing mood and behavioral symptoms while working with patients to help them cope with cancer

Smoking Cessation

Quitting or reducing smoking is the most important lifestyle change you can make to help improve your health during and after cancer treatment. A study of tobacco use by cancer patients found that one out of five people going through treatment for smoking-related cancers, such as lung or head-and-neck cancer, continue to smoke. Quitting smoking is difficult. Tobacco is highly addictive. Most people cannot quit on their own. Most people require counseling and medication support.

Patients at the UChicago Medicine Cancer Center who are smokers are automatically enrolled in the No Smoker Left Behind program. This program will reach you via telephone or email to offer a menu of treatment options to help you quit or reduce smoking. For more information on the No Smoker Left Behind program call 773-702-6188.

Coleman Foundation Supportive Oncology Care Suite & Contact Information

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] The University of Chicago Medicine provides the very best in cancer care. That care involves innovative treatments and compassion for our patients. We believe in treating more than just the disease. We want our patients to have the best quality of life possible after initial diagnosis and treatment.

This is a set of services that we know cancer patients need. They go beyond and outside of that to support them through their diagnosis and their treatment and even into survivorship stages of their lives. So it's these ancillary services that support patients through the physical trials that they have, the emotional traumas that come with the diagnosis.

And all those services-- so whether it's nutritional support or psychosocial support or physical therapy support, even spiritual support, it's bringing those services to the patient to try to reduce the burdens of the disease or the burdens of the therapy.

Cancer patients know the Coleman Foundation Supportive Oncology Outpatient Care Suite is a place where they can go for help on a wide range of issues.

You just love them. Every time I'm done with treatment, I come in. I stop by and I sit down with them if they're here. Or whoever's here, I'll sit down and speak with them or something. It's a very friendly and welcoming place.

The caring staff helps each person deal with the unique challenges they face during their cancer fight.

It's critical. I mean, it's the most important thing, having multidisciplinary staff and having multidisciplinary care. It really improves their quality of life, and it's very, very important.

There's a lot of evidence to suggest that people do better in their treatment if they have the supportive services in addition to the actual interventions by the physicians and the nurses.

Cancer and cancer treatments take a toll on each person's physical and emotional well-being. That's why supportive oncology services are so important.

You may cure their cancer, but the trauma, physical, emotional, spiritual trauma that's left from the diagnosis and the therapy can so damage a patient and their family that, even with a successful cured outcome, they're patients that are still suffering. And so we know we need to bring these services earlier at diagnosis throughout the cancer care trajectory to be able to really have a successful outcome.

This is a place where patients can go to get help with almost any aspect of dealing with their cancer battle. It's a place that provides hope and healing.

If you're feeling down or having a bad day, come over. I'll guarantee you that they will brighten up your day. They will help you with any problems that you have, or just someone to speak to and to vent.

It's so satisfying. It makes me want to do what I do. That's why I come in every day. If I can see somebody improve and know that I helped even just a little bit, it makes it all worth it.

Supportive oncology care at UChicago Medicine would treat the whole patient, not just the disease.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Male patient clasping hands, doctor taking notes