Delirium in patients with advanced cancer
Keywords:
delirium, advanced cancer, diagnosis, palliative careAbstract
Cognitive disorders are very common in cancer patients. Delirium is one of the most
frequent neuropsychiatric complications in patients with advanced cancer. It may be
reversible except in terminal patients. Delirium is often not diagnosed by health-care
professionals, in elderly medical patients. Acute onset of a fluctuating level of
awareness, accompanied by sleep-wake cycle disruption, lethargy or agitation, and
nocturnal worsening of symptoms, is diagnostic of this condition. The author make a
revision of the clinical features, aetiology, diagnosis and management of delirium.
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