Making Decisions About Cancer Treatment
After a cancer diagnosis, people with cancer and their families have to make a number of decisions about medical treatment. These decisions can be complicated by anxiety, unfamiliar words, statistics, and a sense of urgency. Unless you are facing an emergency, take time to research your options, ask questions, and talk with family and friends.
Understanding your diagnosis
Your treatment plan will depend on the type of cancer you have and its stage at diagnosis. There are four important questions that you should discuss with your health care team:
What type of cancer do I have? This is also called a diagnosis. Understanding the type of cancer and where it started will help your health care team know how to treat it.
Where is the cancer located? This is called cancer staging. Cancer staging is a way to describe where the cancer can be found in the body. The cancer’s stage tells you where the cancer is located and its size, if it has grown into nearby tissues and how far, and if it has spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body and organs. The treatment you receive will depend on the cancer’s stage.
What do my diagnosis and stage mean? This question will help you understand your prognosis, which is the predicted course of the cancer. This question will also help you understand treatment goals. For some people, the goals of treatment will be to cure the cancer. For others, it will be to live your life as best as possible for as long as possible. Sometimes you will hear this described as “quality of life.”
What are my treatment options? This is the most common question all people with cancer and their caregivers have. Unless your health care team tells you starting treatment is urgent, it is important to take time to understand and digest the information about your cancer type and diagnosis to make decisions about the recommended treatment options.
After understanding the type of cancer, the stage, and treatment goals, you and your health care team can work together to choose a treatment plan. Take time to learn about all of your treatment options and ask any questions that are unclear. Ask your doctor what you can expect from each of the proposed treatments, including things such as how it would make you feel (quality of life) and how much benefit it may provide. Sometimes, the answers to these questions may be uncertain. This is because everyone experiences different side effects and results from treatment. Talk with your health care team about how to manage possible side effects. Ask your oncologist which treatment plan they recommend and how they made that decision. These types of conversations are called shared decision-making.
Understanding the goals of your treatment options
Your doctor may use some treatments to slow, stop, or eliminate the cancer. They will also use palliative and supportive care to manage symptoms and side effects. For example, if a cancer treatment causes nausea, there are several different ways to avoid or reduce nausea, such as a prescription medication.
During your conversation with your doctor about treatment options, it is important to understand the goals of each treatment in your treatment plan. This can help you make the best decision about treatment for you.
Cancer treatments, also called cancer therapies, have two goals: cure cancer or control cancer.
Curative cancer treatments. When therapies are used to eliminate cancer, they are called “curative cancer treatments.” A treatment plan that is intended to cure cancer will also include palliative and supportive care to manage symptoms and side effects.
Palliative cancer treatments. Sometimes, a cure for cancer is not possible. This does not mean that the cancer cannot be treated and controlled for a certain period of time. Cancer treatments that are used to control cancer are called “palliative cancer treatments.” This is because the treatments help relieve symptoms and side effects for as long as possible. The goal of palliative cancer treatment is to help you live as well as possible for as long as possible.
Take time to understand the medical goals for your treatment, process the information your health care team gives you, and ask questions. Make sure you understand the goals, expected benefits, and possible risks of the recommended treatments. During this conversation, your doctor can tell you if the recommended cancer treatment is curative or palliative.
