Deciding About Breast Cancer Chemotherapy
To make truly informed decisions, patients must understand the potential risks and benefits of their treatment options. In this Forbes article, Peter Ubel describes his research on how to present complicated medical information in a way that patients can comprehend.
As if being diagnosed with breast cancer wasn’t bad enough, many women with this diagnosis face complicated decisions about what kind of medicine or chemotherapy to take, if any, to reduce their chance of cancer recurrence. As I discussed in a recent post, the mathematics of such decisions can be hard to comprehend for many patients. But given that the right choice often depends on patient preferences, it would be great to help patients understand enough of their math to involve them in making the choice.
