The doctor-patient relationship has changed. In times past, patients willingly went along with whatever their physican recommended with few questions. Today, patients no longer simply follow doctors orders without wanting to know why, how and if. There are new rules for both patients and physicians. You will be driving your medical decisions in partnership with your healthcare team. It’s not easy, due in part to the ever increasing number of treatment options available.

As you weigh your options and discuss them with your physican, consider these six steps that may help you make the best possible choice.

STEP 1. KNOW YOUR OPTIONS. Don’t try to decide which choice is best at this point—just identify as many options as you can, even if some seem far-fetched. Research indicates that most patients want complete medical information from doctors and to share the decision-making authority to create a true partnership. Different doctors might recommend different chemotherapy combinations at different intervals or different combinations of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Then again, the best treatment may be no treatment at all. Patients diagnosed with slow-growing cancers are often given the option of “watchful waiting” if there are no serious symptoms.

STEP 2. LEARN THE TRADE-OFFS. Now that you have a list of options, weigh the positives and negatives about each one. Try to get quantitative information, such as chance of recurrence in five years or risk of certain side effects. The goal is to know the risk versus the benefit of each option.

STEP 3. DISCOVER THE DATA. Find out as much as you can about each option. Talk with your doctors and do research. A librarian can guide you to medical journals. You may not understand every word, but the articles contain valuable information. For a crash course in any cancer, news of cutting-edge treatments and advice and support from online cancer communities, go to cancer.org or curetoday.com.

STEP 4. BE SKEPTICAL. Make sure your sources are credible. For example, identify the sponsor(s) of the websites you use. If you are reading about a particular treatment, make sure the patients treated have the same type of cancer you have. Is the treatment recommendation based on success in one patient or in a randomized trial of 1,000 patients?

STEP 5. CONTEMPLATE THE MEANING. Each medical decision means different things to different people. The decision to undergo surgery to relieve back pain might be obvious to a 56-year-old man with a large family. But an 82-year-old man who is the sole caregiver to his ill wife might choose to endure pain rather than take the risk that surgery would prevent him from caring for his loved one. Find the meaning your medical decision has for you and your life.

STEP 6. BE CONFIDENT. It can be a tremendous relief for both patient and doctor once they settle upon a treatment plan, but in the world of cancer, each decision carries a measure of uncertainty. You will come to understand what oncologists have always known: The treatment may or may not be effective. But in all cases, it is important to make decisions with confidence.

^ TOP OF PAGE