W then ophthalmologist and co-founder of Glaucomflecken LLC, William Flanary, MD, suffered two separate, unrelated bouts of cancer and then cardiac arrest, his wife served as his primary caregiver. While Dr Flanary received the medical attention he needed, Kristin Flanary, also known as Lady Glaucomflecken, co-founder and marketing director of Glaucomflecken LLC in Portland, Oregon, was left frazzled and worn down. “We discovered there’s a big discrepancy between how closely we look at how patients are doing in terms of distress versus how closely we look at how caregivers are doing.”

She is not alone in her view. It is well-accepted that cancer causes many physical, emotional, and financial burdens not only for patients, but for their caregivers as well. A new observational study has confirmed that caregivers’ needs are often overlooked, making them vulnerable.

The study by researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (doi:10.1093/jnci/djad198).

威廉·弗兰纳里 (William Flanary) 医学博士时任眼科医生，也是 Glaucomflecken LLC 的联合创始人，他曾两次独立地、互不相关地患上癌症，然后心脏骤停，他的妻子是他的主要照顾者。虽然弗兰纳里医生得到了所需的医疗护理，但俄勒冈州波特兰市 Glaucomflecken LLC 的联合创始人兼营销总监克里斯汀·弗兰纳里 (Kristin Flanary)，又名格劳康弗莱肯女士 (Lady Glaucomflecken)，却感到疲惫不堪。“我们发现，我们对患者在痛苦方面的表现的密切程度与我们对护理人员的表现的密切程度之间存在很大差异。”

她并不孤单。众所周知，癌症不仅给患者而且给他们的护理人员带来许多身体、情感和经济负担。一项新的观察性研究证实，护理人员的需求经常被忽视，使他们变得脆弱。

北卡罗来纳州温斯顿塞勒姆维克森林医学院研究人员的这项研究发表在《国家癌症研究所杂志》上(doi:10.1093/jnci/djad198)。