If, after a reasonable review of the pros and cons, you are not certain whether you want to pursue a treatment, there are several things you should do: Say so. Tell your doctor that you need time to think about it. Don't just walk away and never come back.
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What happens if I don't have any treatments for my breast cancer?
— -- Question: What will happen to me if I decide not to have any treatments for my breast cancer? Answer: Well, the hope for women with early stage breast cancer is that by using surgery and radiation therapy and, where appropriate, chemotherapy and hormonal treatments, that we can help prevent the cancer from coming back.
What should I do if someone I care about doesn't continue cancer treatment?
If someone you care about has chosen not to continue their cancer treatment, be as supportive as you can. She may have already been met with resistance from her doctors and those closest to her. If her mind is made up, it won't help to add your voice to the debate.
Can I decide what is the best treatment for my breast cancer?
Unless you are a minor or are deemed medically incompetent in a court of law (situations that rarely occur with breast cancer), no one but you can determine what is or what is not in your best interest—even if you decide that the best treatment for your breast cancer is no treatment at all.
Can I refuse to go to the hospital for breast cancer?
Can I Refuse Breast Cancer Treatment? 1 Reasons to Refuse Treatment. Most people would consider it "normal" to want to seek treatment for breast cancer the moment you are diagnosed, particularly at a time where survival rates ... 2 Role of the Physician. ... 3 Exceptions. ... 4 Making an Informed Choice. ... 5 If a Loved One Declines Treatment. ...
Can I refuse hormone therapy for breast cancer?
Postmenopausal patients with "ultralow-risk" breast cancers may be able to forgo standard endocrine treatment with tamoxifen, which is routinely prescribed after surgery for many patients.
What happens if you choose not to treat breast cancer?
This study is the first to quantify the impact of patient refusal of surgery on the survival of breast cancer. It clearly demonstrates that women who refuse surgery have a doubled risk to die of breast cancer, regardless of personal factors, tumor characteristics, stage, and nonsurgical treatment.
Can I skip hormone therapy after lumpectomy and radiation?
If you're having lumpectomy and will be taking hormonal therapy after surgery, it may be possible for you to skip radiation therapy. As you are making your treatment plan, you and your doctor will consider a number of factors, including: your age. the size of the cancer.
How important is hormone therapy after breast cancer?
Hormone therapy following surgery, radiation or chemotherapy has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in people with early-stage hormone-sensitive breast cancers. It can also effectively reduce the risk of metastatic breast cancer growth and progression in people with hormone-sensitive tumors.
Can you live with breast cancer without treatment?
For the amalgamated 1,022 patients, median survival time was 2.3 years. Actuarial 5- and (partially fitted) 10-year survival rates for these patients with untreated breast cancer was 19.8% and 3.7%, respectively. Historical data of untreated breast cancer patients reveal a potential for long survival in some cases.
Are you allowed to refuse cancer treatment?
Treatment decision making is an ongoing process; thus, patients who initially refuse treatment may later choose to undergo conventional cancer treatment if given the adequate support, information, and time necessary to make the decision.
What happens if you don't take hormone therapy?
An increased risk of endometrial cancer (only if you still have your uterus and are not taking a progestin along with estrogen). Increased risk of blood clots and stroke. Increased chance of gallbladder/gallstone problems.
What happens if you decide not to do radiation?
Missed Radiation Therapy Sessions Increase Risk of Cancer Recurrence. Patients who miss radiation therapy sessions during cancer treatment have an increased risk of their disease returning, even if they eventually complete their course of radiation treatment, according to a new study.
What happens if you don't get radiation after lumpectomy?
A study has found that for women diagnosed with DCIS considered to have a low risk of recurrence treated with lumpectomy without radiation, the risk of DCIS recurrence or developing invasive disease in the same breast increased through 12 years of follow-up and didn't level off.
Is there an alternative to taking tamoxifen?
Arimidex Still Better Than Tamoxifen After Surgery to Reduce Recurrence Risk. After 10 years of follow-up, research shows that 5 years of Arimidex is better at reducing the risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer recurrence than 5 years of tamoxifen.
Why you should not take tamoxifen?
Tamoxifen may cause hot flashes and increase the risk of blood clots and stroke. Aromatase inhibitors may cause muscle and joint aches and pains. Less common but more severe side effects of aromatase inhibitors are heart problems, osteoporosis, and broken bones.
What happens if you stop tamoxifen early?
Women who receive fewer than five years of tamoxifen have significantly higher rates of recurrence and death, they say. Not adhering to treatment or, particularly, stopping it early are “likely to result in significantly worse outcomes.”
What happens if you don't treat breast cancer?
And if untreated, breast cancer universally becomes a fatal disease.
How to prevent breast cancer from coming back?
Answer: Well, the hope for women with early stage breast cancer is that by using surgery and radiation therapy and, where appropriate, chemotherapy and hormonal treatments, that we can help prevent the cancer from coming back.
Can breast cancer go away on its own?
It can happen over long periods of time, but if you don't have surgery and if you don't have other treatments, it doesn't go away on its own. That's why we recommend (to) people that they get appropriate medical treatment.
How to maintain quality of life after breast cancer?
Seek Palliative Care. Other Ways to Maintain Your Quality of Life. Focus on What Matters. Breast cancer treatment isn’t a walk in the park. It affects you mentally and physically. You might have side effects that make your day-to-day life a lot harder. Because of this and other factors, you may choose to stop treatment at some point.
What is a proxy for hospice?
Choose a health care proxy (someone who makes health care decisions for you when you can’t) Make decisions about hospice care. They’ll also help you with something called legacy work. That’s when you make a special gift for your loved ones to remember you by. It can be anything.
Can palliative care help with cancer?
If you don’t know how to do that, Prsic says your palliative care team can help you get in touch. You can’t control cancer, but you can control how you spend the time you have left. Dig in your garden, make plans for special events, or do things you’ve always wanted to do. If symptoms get in the way, tell your doctor.
How effective is hormone replacement therapy for breast cancer?
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is very effective in managing these symptoms in general population and in breast cancer survivors. However, the concern of breast cancer recurrence as a result of HRT use keeps many oncologists from using this approach in symptom management. Evidence from randomized trials, observational studies and met-analyses on the impact of HRT use on breast cancer recurrence and survival remains controversial. Climacteric symptoms in breast cancer survivors should be delineated for type and severity for methodical management. Lifestyle modifications are effective for mild symptoms, while non-hormonal pharmaceutical approaches can be used as second-line therapy for control of hot flashes, vulvo-vaginal atrophy, arthralgia, mood swings, sleep disturbance, and depression. Evidence does not conclusively render HRT, as a contraindicated approach for these patients; informed consent and shared-decision-making is a reasonable approach for HRT use in symptomatic breast cancer survivors.
Can hormone replacement therapy be used after breast cancer?
Hormone replacement therapy after breast cancer: Yes, No or maybe?
How many women refused breast cancer surgery?
It compared patients who refused breast cancer with those that those that accepted surgery. Only 1.3% of women (70) refused surgery. Of that group, 37 had no treatment, 25 had hormone-therapy only, and 8 had other types of treatments.
How long does breast cancer last?
(An old study of untreated breast cancer suggest the 5 year survival rates are 18% at 5 years and 3.6% at 10 years.)
Does CAM help cancer?
Note that the difference is only statistically significant in (a) where all-causes of death were included and not (b), cancer-specific causes. So does that mean CAM helps? Probably not. The two groups are not well defined, and the “unknown” group could include CAM users – it is not a comparison of CAM versus no treatment. And as the types of CAM used was not documented, this is a heterogeneous group. The key point this comparison illustrates is that CAM users did dramatically worse than women that took conventional cancer care. Even delaying surgery to allow for CAM first significantly decreased the effectiveness of subsequent conventional care. The authors conclude, correctly, that there is no evidence to support using CAM as primary cancer treatment.
Is CAM a substitute for medicine?
Surveys suggest the vast majority of consumers with medical conditions use CAM in addition to, rather than as a substitute for medicine – that is, it is truly “complementary”. But there is a smaller population that uses CAM as a true “alternative” to medicine.
When will the New England Journal of Medicine issue 2021 be released?
In the June 17, 2021 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Erica …
Does breast cancer cause progressive disease?
Consistent with the study above, the vast majority of breast cancer patients who refuse surgical intervention developed progressive disease. Even delaying surgery increased risks and overall mortality. Outcomes were better for patients that accepted surgery, but refused adjuvant treatments, like chemotherapy. However, even this strategy significantly raised 10-year mortality estimates.
Can you opt out of follow up on cancer?
Most patients who decide to opt-out of cancer treatment, also opt-out of any follow-up evaluation. So tracking down patients, and their outcomes, is essential. The effects of treatment refusals and delay, and the effectiveness of CAM as a substitute, has been evaluated in several groups of patients with breast cancer.
What is the best treatment for breast cancer?
There are several types of hormonal therapy medicines. Tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), is one of the most well-known. Tamoxifen can be used to treat both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.
How does hormone therapy work after breast cancer surgery?
Hormonal therapy medicines work in two ways: by blocking the action of estrogen on breast cancer cells.
How many women didn't complete hormonal therapy?
Overall, about 19% of the women didn’t complete the prescribed course of hormonal therapy. The percentages of women who didn’t complete the prescribed course of therapy by treatment type were: 17.5% of women prescribed 5 years of Femara didn’t complete treatment. 17% of women prescribed 5 years of tamoxifen didn’t complete treatment.
Why did women stop taking hormones?
Most of the women who stopped taking hormonal therapy early -- about 83% -- said they stopped taking the medicine because of side effects.
Can postmenopausal women have breast cancer?
A study has found that postmenopausal women who stop taking hormonal therapy early or skip doses are much more likely to have a breast cancer recurrence than women who take hormonal therapy as prescribe d. The research was published online on May 23, 2016 by the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Does tamoxifen cause hot flashes?
Tamoxifen may cause hot flashes and increase the risk of blood clots and stroke. Aromatase inhibitors may cause muscle and joint aches and pains. Less common but more severe side effects of aromatase inhibitors are heart problems, osteoporosis, and broken bones.
Can hormonal therapy cause hot flashes?
Side effects caused by hormonal therapy can be very troublesome for many women. It’s important to talk to your doctor as soon as you start having any side effects, including hot flashes, joint pain, blood clots, trouble sleeping, fatigue, or difficulty concentrating.
How to post cancer on message board?
2. Choose the tag from the drop-down menu that clicks most with you (and add it to any posts you create so others can easily find and sort through posts) 3.Start posting.
How long to take Femara after estrogen positive cancer?
Standard of care is now to take Femara or one of the other Aromatase inhibitors (ie arimidex) for 5 years after treatment for estrogen positive cancer if you are post menopausal.
Why is aromatase inhibitor used in postmenopausal women?
It is used in postmenopausal women because it prevents your body from turning aromatase into estrogen, which is helpful for women with estrogen positive cancer who do not have estrogen in their body from the ovaries. If your ovaries are still producing estrogen the aromatase inhibitor will not help as there will still be estrogen in the body.
Why do you need hormone therapy?
Hormone therapy basically cuts off the presence of those hormones and prevent the growth of your type of cancer in your body as a recurrence. So you need to discuss why your oncologist is recommending a particular kind of hormone therapy for you. It is usually done to prevent the cancer you have from recurring.
Why don't women take Arimidex?
Some women choose not to do so because of side effects, or because they feel the small percentage of benefit isn't worth the risk. That is a decision to be made along with you doctor. I took Arimidex for 5 years and was one of the lucky ones (there are many of us out there) who had very few and very mild side effects.
What happens if a tumor is not removed?
I am just guessing that the pathology of your tumor was hormone positive, which means that if there are any residual cells of your tumor that were not removed as a result of the surgery- those cells will continue to grow and multiply in response to the presence of those hormones in your body that promote the growth of those cancer cells.
Does estrogen help with cancer?
This would also mean that there is enough natural estrogen present to support the growth of estrogen positive tumor cells. Your doctor wants to remove most of that cancer-supporting estrogen by giving you the aromatase-inhibiting prescription, to protect you from further cancers developing.
7 Answers
I don't blame you for not wanting the side effects but its pretty important to take it. Some breast cancers are estrogen receptive and you want to cut out all the estrogen you can.
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Reasons to Refuse Treatment
- Most people would consider it "normal" to want to seek treatment for breast cancer the moment you are diagnosed, particularly at a time where survival rates are ever-increasing. But this would also infer that notseeking treatment is "abnormal," and that's rarely the case. There are a plethor…
Role of The Physician
- The traditional patriarchal role of the physician has changed vastly in the past 50 or so years. Where doctors were once prescriptive, they are now considered equal partners in your care. When it comes to decisions, however, those are entirely yours. Within this context, the role of your doctor is to provide you full disclosure of your condition and treatment options in a language yo…
Exceptions
- There are few exceptions to your right to refuse medical treatment, however. In an emergency situation, doctors do have the right to intervene only to control the emergency. Unless there is a legal directive to prevent such treatment, such as a Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) order, the doctor has an obligation to step in, albeit in a specific capacity. The only other clear exception is parent…
Making An Informed Choice
- Most people have encountered one aspect of informed consent, namely the signing of a medical consent form prior to a medical procedure or hospitalization. But informed consent is about more than just signing a document. It involves discussing the potentials risks and benefits of a recommended treatment, as well as the risks and benefits of receiving no treatment. If, after a re…