Reflections on coping with head and neck cancer

Coping has received much attention in the cancer field, with patients who have reached an acceptance stage in their illness or use problem-solving strategies showing better adjustment to their disease. Disease status and thus prognosis are undeniably important factors in adjustment, particularly in head and neck cancer where the location of the cancer is an important influence on coping. Coping with cancer is probably a more a complex issue than is realized, given that it is a changeable state and context dependent. This is evidenced by the fact that several other coping models are available in the cancer field which try to clarify this.