Care of a handicapped woman with metastatic breast cancer.

Reflection can be utilized by nurses as a learning process to help them expand and develop their clinical knowledge and skills to directly benefit client care. Patients with advanced diseases that cannot be cured are part of a low status group which renders them vulnerable. As nurses we have control and power and it is our professional duty and privilege to use it on our patients' behalf. The early detection of cancer in the mentally handicapped population is often difficult. For nurses to feel confident in dealing with malignant wounds, they should also have a basic knowledge of the factors leading to malignant lesions and the factors that influence wound healing. Each malignant ulcer is unique, requiring individual assessment. The preferred conventional treatment for locally advanced breast cancer is palliative radiotherapy.