RESUMO
Lung cancer was a rare disease until the middle of the XX century, a time when it became one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in the actual world. Nowadays, it is esteemed that one million people all over the world die every year due to lung cancer, which means that a life is lost each 30 seconds. The quality of life of this patients decreases inevitably, being frequent hospital readmission due to the lack of conditions to lead a normal and painless life. The aim of this study was to evaluate physical and cognitive incapacity and the social needs of patients with lung cancer in the outpatient department of Hospital de S. João--Porto. Our study includes 68 patients, predominantly married male, with average age of 63, retired, ex-smokers. Moreover, they had high physical dependence degrees and the most frequent social need was the attribution of the "complemento por dependência". In this type of patients, the family has a very important role on which the treatment is concerned, as well as to the level of the personal adjustment of the patient to his disease. Its social workers job to play a mediating role between the patients and their relatives and the several institutions which can give better responses to the needs of this sort of patients.
