[Historical development of rehabilitation of cancer patients in the Hamburg area].

It had been particularly noticeable in the post-war years that a surprisingly large number of women who had undergone cancer treatment (mostly for uterine and breast cancer) had to be readmitted in poor general health soon after their initial discharge home. Although the full treatment regimen then available was applied (such as blood transfusions, vitamin-glucose-infusions, and antibacterial medication), a larger number of deaths occurred, without any trace being found of the presence of residual cancer, early recidive, or second carcinoma. Close medical observation, finally, lead us to conclude that these patients' stamina had been too deeply undermined to be able to overcome the disease and treatment aftermath, caused mainly by chronic under-nourishment, both quantitatively and qualitatively, by often disastrous housing conditions (in refugee camps, cellars, etc.), the emotional strain experienced due to death or imprisonment of the closest relatives, and, in particular, by the resulting obligation to maintain the family, usually through work under very strenuous conditions, as well as by flight and hence loss of the accustomed environment. In cooperation with the social security administrations, these insights brought about the provision of "convalescent cures" of 4-6 weeks duration, with repeat health resort treatments being possible till the end of the third year post-discharge. Again involving the social security institutes, these measures, in the process of our growing knowledge of fact and inter-relationships, were extended to become the disease-specific aftercare treatment provided in rehabilitation clinics.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)