Maintaining personhood within family life: a qualitative study of home-based palliative care for patients with advanced cancer in urban China
Shan Zhang, Xiaotian Zhang, Yuan Qin, Minghui Wang, Zhaoyu Li, Lijie Xu, Xiaohong Ou, Zidan Wang, Yao Xiao, Lingling Wu, Peng Yue · 2026
Read Maintaining personhood within family life: a qualitative study of home-based palliative care for patients with advanced cancer in urban China by Shan Zhang, Xiaotian Zhang, Yuan Qin, Minghui Wang, Zhaoyu Li, Lijie Xu, Xiaohong Ou, Zidan Wang, Yao Xiao, Lingling Wu, Peng Yue (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13587468.txt.
Description
Shan Zhang and colleagues sit with dying cancer patients in Beijing to learn how home palliative care feels from inside the family. Many Chinese patients spend their last phase at home, where services are thin and talk of death is often avoided. Their 2026 study recruited twelve urban patients with advanced cancer through clinics and community centers, using long interviews and observation of daily care.
Four threads ran through the accounts. Patients wanted to stay visible at the heart of family life rather than fade to its edge. They guarded personal limits to keep dignity and some say over visitors and routines. As illness advanced, they leaned on outside services as a final safety net that also spared their families. Lastly, they worked to affirm a life's worth, hoping to be remembered well. The authors urge care that protects personhood, not just comfort.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Shan Zhang, Xiaotian Zhang, Yuan Qin, Minghui Wang, Zhaoyu Li, Lijie Xu, Xiaohong Ou, Zidan Wang, Yao Xiao, Lingling Wu, Peng Yue |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 42053 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |