Patients presented with too many choices about cancer treatment options
When patients are diagnosed with cancer, they are thrown head first into a world of complex decisions involving their treatment plans, presented with a variety of choices they may not fully understand. Aside from the devastating news that they have cancer, they are now faced with decisions that could literally be the difference between life and death.
Until recently, most cancer patients would do whatever their doctors said was the right thing to do, often because it was the only form of treatment available at the time. As time went on and more treatments became available – and patients recognized they had options – more and more patients decided that they wanted more input into the decisions that governed their medical care.
But now, although patients have more power to decide on a course of treatment, they may develop mental anguish at being responsible for making decisions based on information from a variety of sources. Different doctors, different hospitals, support groups, online Web sites and family members may all have different recommendations for which way to go, and patients struggle with the decisions they have to make, constantly wondering if they’ve made the right choices.
Patients with various types of cancer may be presented with multiple treatment options including different forms of surgery, various types of radiation, multiple types of chemotherapy, hormone therapy, ultrasound, cryosurgery, vaccines, transplants, clinical trials and more. Patients with incurable forms of cancer, like mesothelioma, where the goal is to slow or contain progression of the disease as long as possible, have especially difficult decisions to make. Patients can also, of course, choose to do nothing.
Doctors and hospitals are only beginning to address the stress and anguish that such important and confusing decisions can cause for patients. A behavioral epidemiologist at Thomas Jefferson University has developed a counseling program for patients with certain types of cancers, and Fox Chase Cancer Center has created its own decision aids for certain cancers.
There is a question about who will pay for any extra time that doctors spend helping their patients make these life-changing treatment decisions, and the hope is that funding will follow as the demand for such quality of care increases.
With all of the information available for patients online, it is hard for most people to understand the medical terminology, let alone decide which information is relevant and trust-worthy. In the end, though, many patients do appreciate the opportunity to make the final decision about their medical care.
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