Table 1.

Cancer Characteristics That Contribute to the Individual’s Risk for Psychological and Behavioral Morbidity

	Cancer characteristics
Morbidity risk	Extent of disease	Magnitude of treatment	Prognosis
Low	Localized/Stage I or II at diagnosis	Usually single modality (e.g., surgery or RT)	Favorable (e.g., 70–95% 5-year survival)
Moderate	Regional/Stage III at diagnosis; first recurrence for initially Stage I disease	Often combination therapy (e.g., surgery with RT for nodal disease; surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy)	Guarded (e.g., 40–60% 5-year survival)
High	Distant/Stage IV at diagnosis; first recurrence for regional disease or all stages of rapidly progressive disease (e.g., lung or pancreatic cancer)	Possibility of surgery or RT for debulking/palliation. Systemic chemotherapy is likely; possibility of invasive treatments for pain/symptom control	Dismal (e.g., 15–40% 1-year survival; 4–15% 5-year survival)

Note. RT = radiotherapy.