Cancer patients often want ‘one more round.’ Should doctors say no?
04/02/24 at 03:00 AM
Cancer patients often want ‘one more round.’ Should doctors say no?
The Washington Post, by Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD; 3/31/24
My patient was in his early 30s and his leukemia had returned again following yet another round of treatment. He was a poster child for the recently reported rise in cancer rates in the young, and had just asked me what chemotherapy cocktail I could devise for him next, to try to rid him of his cancer. I hesitated before answering. Oncologists are notorious for always being willing to recommend to our patients one more course of treatment, even when the chances of success are negligible.