Cancer Treatment Options: What You Must Know

Because few cancers require immediate treatment, you should have plenty of time to gather the information you will need about treatment options before you actually begin treatment. Even if the disease initially represents a medical emergency, a temporary measure will be taken to relieve the crisis and allow time to prepare for the longer course of treatment. Obviously, any prolonged delay in starting treatment is unwise. However, no one should make a snap decision about treatment because of self-induced panic or pressure from doctors or family members to make a choice.

The information you will need about each treatment option available to you includes answers to the following questions. You will obtain this information during your discussions with your doctor or doctors:

1.How often will the treatment be given? For example, how many cycles of chemotherapy will I need?

2.Where will the treatment be given? For example, will I need to be hospitalized?

3.How will the treatment affect my job? For example, will I have to take time off from work?

4.Will I be able to meet my family responsibilities? For example, will I be able to carry my infant?

5.What side effects (complications) of the treatment can I expect? For example, will the chemotherapeutic drugs make me nauseous?

6.What are the expected benefits of the treatment? For example, what are the chances that my disease will recur?

The Patient's Checklist will be extremely helpful in collecting information about and recording the answers to these questions. In addition to including the name of your cancer and the results of your staging tests, it will contain details about the different treatments available to you, their side effects and potential benefits, and predictions about their success. The checklist will also include any appropriate clinical research studies that you may want to consider participating in.

You may want to contact the American Cancer Society or the National Cancer Institute's "Physicians Data Query" (PDQ) during your information-gathering period. In addition to these formal sources, information is increasingly available on the Internet. Use a great deal of caution here, however, because much of the information on the Internet has not been officially reviewed or edited, and some "information" may actually be advertisements for a particular doctor's practice or treatment. The information from other patients in the chat rooms or bulletin boards may be interesting, but it may not apply to your specific disease or situation.

Some of the treatments advertised on the Internet are alternative, complementary, or unproven treatments. Let me say here that, although we all want a good result of treatment, for some people with cancer, no really effective therapy is available. For these people, unconventional treatments can be especially tempting.

Source: After Cancer Treatment by Julie K. Silver