From the Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
Address reprint requests to Timothy M. Pawlik, MD, MPH, MTS, Associate Professor of Surgery and Oncology, Department of Surgery, 600 N Wolfe St, Halsted 610, Baltimore, MD 21287; e-mail: tpawlik1{at}jhmi.edu
Overview: Spiritual and religious concerns often become of central importance to patients who are diagnosed with cancer. Physicians are often ill-prepared or reluctant to address the spiritual and religious needs of their patients. There is emerging data that religious and spiritual support among patients with cancer not only improves the relationship that patients have with their caregivers, but that it also improves the patient's quality of life. Physicians should be at least somewhat familiar with varying religious views on dying so as to better understand and therefore better serve patients at the end of life. Physicians can and should strive to care for both the physical and spiritual needs of their patients.
