By proactively understanding and
managing aspects of your treatment,
you can help ensure the best
possible outcome from treatment and
maintain some degree of control in
your life. Things you can do to
optimize treatment of cancer are:
- Get informed - Stay
organized - Discuss the
effectiveness of treatment - Work
with your physician to select the
best treatment for you
Don't
forget that fighting cancer is not a
challenge you should face alone. It
is a team effort that involves
family, friends, and your healthcare
team. Don't overlook the strength
that can come from having your
support network by your side. In
order to ensure optimal treatment,
consider the following:
Get
informed: A new diagnosis of
cancer can be a shock, making you
feel out of control and overwhelmed.
Getting informed can help alleviate
these feelings. Seek out many
resources to investigate your
treatment options for your type and
stage of cancer. Resources should
include your healthcare team, second
opinions, books, the internet, and
other patients with your disease. As
you learn, identify the specific
questions that only your doctor can
answer. Most importantly, work
toward understanding your diagnosis
and stage of disease, goals of
therapy, treatment plan, benefits of
treatment, and possible side
effects. Following a diagnosis of
cancer, the most important step is
to accurately define the stage of
your disease. Staging is a system
that describes how far the cancer
has spread. (Keep in mind that some
cancers, such as leukemia, may not
be staged.) Each stage of cancer may
be treated differently. In order for
you to begin evaluating and
discussing treatment options with
your healthcare team, you need to
find out from your doctor the
correct stage of your cancer.
Stay organized: Develop a
system for keeping all the
information that you gather
organized, such as laboratory and
test results, admissions and
consultation information, and
additional instructions. Keep a
folder or three-ring binder with all
your information in one location.
Discussing the effectiveness of
treatment: It is important
that you and your caregivers are
able to evaluate treatment options
and to understand how cancer
treatments are compared so that you
can work with your healthcare team
to make informed treatment choices.
Understanding the goals of a
specific therapy, as well as the
risk and benefits it poses, will
help you decide which treatment is
most appropriate for your situation.
Patients typically receive cancer
treatment in order to cure the
cancer, prolong the duration of
their life or alleviate symptoms
caused by the cancer and improve
their quality of life. These
potential benefits of treatment must
be balanced against the risks of
treatment. Some risks posed by
various cancer treatments may
include time away from family and
friends, uncomfortable side effects
of therapy and/or long-term
complications or death.
The
most common term used to describe
the effectiveness of cancer
treatment is remission. Remission
means that the cancer has
disappeared and can no longer be
measured using existing technology.
Oncologists use the terms partial
and complete remission to describe
partial or complete disappearance of
cancer after treatment. A cancer
cannot be cured if a remission is
not obtained; however, a remission
does not always ensure that a cancer
is cured. The best ways to evaluate
the benefits of treatment are to
examine the duration of remission,
survival, and disease-free survival
(cure). Since it often takes many
years to determine whether a new
treatment is better than a previous
treatment, remission rates may be
useful for comparing therapies when
patients have not been evaluated
long enough to know whether the
chance of cure or survival is
improved.
Treatment of cancer
is associated with risks. It is
important that you evaluate the
risks and benefits of treatment
within the context of the overall
goal of receiving cancer therapy.
Cancer treatment may be
inconvenient, prolonged, or
unavailable close to home. These are
important considerations when
evaluating treatment options, but
not typically mentioned in medical
journals reporting the results and
benefits of new treatments.
Select
your optimal treatment:
Cancer treatment varies depending
upon your type of cancer, stage of
cancer, and overall condition.
Additionally, treatment options may
vary depending on whether or not the
goal of treatment is to cure the
cancer, keep the cancer from
spreading, or to relieve the
symptoms caused by cancer. You and
your physician will consider all of
these factors as you work on
selecting your optimal treatment.
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