Among some of the more common reasons for the refusal of breast cancer treatment:
- A period of adjustment: No one really knows how they will respond to a cancer diagnosis until they get one. Some people...
- Denial: Denial is usually self-protective, allowing a woman to manage her emotions until she is better able to process...
- Personal priorities: You might assume that...
Full Answer
When patients refuse treatment for their cancer?
Palliative care is focused on treating or improving symptoms like pain or nausea, and not the cancer itself. It helps the person feel as good as possible for as long as possible. The person who refuses or stops cancer care may be open to hospice.
How to cure breast cancer naturally?
© 2022 MJH Life Sciences ™ and CURE - Oncology & Cancer News for Patients & Caregivers. All rights reserved. As a caregiver to my daughter with breast cancer, I had to get creative in finding ways to help her keep food down after treatments made her nauseous.
How to cure cancer without chemotherapy or surgery?
- Are elderly
- Have poor nutrition
- Are obese
- Have already taken or are currently taking other medicines
- Have already had or are currently getting radiation therapy
- Have low blood cell counts
- Have liver or kidney diseases
- May otherwise be unable to tolerate full doses
Why you should refuse chemotherapy?
Chemo Is a Carcinogen . The argument that chemotherapy drugs can cause secondary tumors or potentially increase your risk of the recurrence of cancer is another frequently toted reason some people refuse chemo. Again, there is a small kernel of truth in part of this fear—for normal, healthy people chemotherapy drugs can be harmful.
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.)
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.
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.
Is it reasonable to say no to palliative care?
Saying “ no” may also be reasonable where the benefits from treatment are expected to be modest, yet the adverse effects from treatments are substantial. These scenarios are not uncommon in the palliative care setting.
Is treatment without risk?
No treatment is without some sort of risk. And a decision to decline treatment has its own risks. One of the challenges that I confront regularly as a pharmacist is helping patients understand a medication’s expected long-term benefits against the risks and side effects of treatment.
Is breast cancer curable?
Breast cancer is well studied, frequently diagnosed, and if detected early, potentially curable. Conventional treatment for early (localized) breast cancer is surgical resection of the tumor, followed by radiation and chemotherapy to reduce the risk of disease recurrence, by killing any residual cancer cells that remain.
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.
Why did Joan Crawford refuse treatment?
In the 1960s, film actress Joan Crawford refused treatment for her pancreatic cancer because of her faith as a Christian Scientist.
Can cancer be cured?
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to come to grips with, but not all cancer cases can be cured. Sometimes, cancer progresses to a point where it can’t be treated, and sometimes treatment simply stops working. Even when treatment may extend a person’s life, some people find that the side effects of that treatment makes life unbearable.
Is refusing cancer treatment a medical decision?
That’s why it’s important to recognize that refusing cancer treatment is not only a medical decision, but a personal decision, as well.
Why is breast cancer considered an alternative to conventional medicine?
The apparent benignity of the clinical state, together with the seeming over-aggressiveness of conventional medical care is one of the reasons why breast cancer is one of the cancers for which "alternatives" are most commonly sought.
What is discordance in cancer treatment?
For purposes of the survey, cancer treatment discordance was defined as any difference in treatment that a patient reported receiving compared to the treatment the patient reported as having been recommended to her by the treating surgeon and/or oncologist.
Why is adjuvant chemotherapy important?
Because adjuvant chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and hormonal therapies have contributed to a decline in mortality from breast cancer of 39% since 1989, it is important to determine why women refuse these treatments and fail to optimize their chances of long term survival. To a lesser, but still important extent, ...
Can a woman refuse chemotherapy?
No, far more common is the case where a woman accepts surgery but then refuses chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and/or radiation, either altogether or in favor of some form of quackery. In doing so, such women, whether they simply refuse adjuvant therapy altogether for whatever reason or go beyond that and fall prey to quackery, ...
Is breast cancer a curative disease?
In the case of breast cancer, for instance (and colorectal cancer as well, among other solid tumors), surgery is the primary treatment and can be curative by itself. What chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy can add to the treatment of, for example, breast cancer is to decrease the chance of its recurring after successful surgical ...
Can a woman have a mastectomy?
Indeed, most women will accept surgery of some sort or another, either a lumpecto my or a mastectomy. Sometimes, they undergo an excisional biopsy, not realizing that that for smaller tumors an excisional biopsy can remove the whole tumor and in some cases be curative. No, far more common is the case where a woman accepts surgery ...
Can you refuse chemotherapy after breast surgery?
All a woman does by refusing recommended chemotherapy after surgery is to refuse a relative decrease in their risk of dying of a recurrence of breast cancer by 25-30%, a benefit that is, in absolute terms, much greater for more advanced but still curable breast cancers.
What type of cancer is Donna?
Donna was diagnosed with stage 0 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer, according to BreastCancer.org. Only about 40 to 50 percent of DCIS cases progress to invasive breast cancer, research shows.
Did Donna Pinto have a mastectomy?
Donna Pinto. You get diagnosed with breast cancer, and then you get a mastectomy. That’s just the way it goes, right? But when Donna Pinto was told she had the disease, she opted not to have the surgery—and she may be on to something. Among women diagnosed with breast cancer, about 20 percent will have a slow-growing tumor ...
Is cancer a death sentence?
“Everyone has the association that cancer is a death sentence,” says Donna. “You go to that place. You wonder, ‘Is this my silent killer?’ Doctors are treating DCIS the same way they treat someone with invasive breast cancer.”
How many breast cancer patients refuse treatment?
One survey found that 3% of breast cancer patients under age 65 refused treatment, compared with 7% of patients older than 65, Time reports. Physicians sometimes find it difficult to accept a patient's decision to go against recommended treatment, Time reports.
Why do physicians try to cover themselves?
A professor of complementary medicine at the University of Calgary says physicians often try to get patients to change their mind or try to "cover themselves in case the patient or the family later decides to sue for inadequate care.".
Do anticancer drugs have a high chance of harm?
According to a breast cancer activist and health journalist, for these patients " unlike most drugs, which provide the high possibility of benefit with the possibility of harm, many anticancer drugs…provide near certainty of harm with only a possibility of benefits.".
Can refuseniks prolong their lives?
In addition, refuseniks may be unsure of how long harsh therapies would prolong their lives and how expensive they would be. "Survival is easy to measure, but what we don't measure is how people live during the time they are alive," the director of general surgery at the University of South Florida says.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
Has anyone refused chemo for breast cancer? I have been thinking over the past few days and I’m just not prepared to put my body through that. I’ll have the op and radiotherapy but that’s as far as I’m going to go with it. Xx
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
Every one reacts different to chemo ..I know that as my mum was ill with hers ..but her friend took it in her stride with just feeling tired all time ..I hope you take what is offered to you because they know the best way to treat it ...I myself have been recalled by after my mamogram and tomorrow they want to do more scans from different angles plus utrosound maybe biopsy I must say im scared to death of what results might be ..please talk to the nurses about your fear of chemo x.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
hi my mum was diagnosed with BC in June at 45 it was a 2cm Tumour hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes but was a grade 3. It wasn’t the gene one it was a hormone one the plan was originally have the blue radiation dye the day before the op then lumpectomy then radio therapy.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
It isn’t a case of refused, more a case of chosen not to. Your body, your cancer and your choice of treatment. We are all grown ups and capable of assessing the costs and benefits of any individual treatment.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
Completely agree Dave. Get all the facts and make a decision, it’s not just how our bodies react it’s our minds as well. Both can influence the outcome of treatment.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
I was diagnosed in August 2018 and I chose not to have chemo as my treatment plan. I am age 49.
Anyone refused chemo for breast cancer?
I am also debating whether I should refuse chemo for my bone cancer which has spread to my lungs and is at stage 4. I'm taking other herbal supplements and hoping these will work instead of the chemo.
Why do people decline chemotherapy?
Many patients decline chemotherapy for low odds of benefit especially if they have gotten very weak or have other symptoms that make their quality of life very poor. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
What happens when you die from cancer?
The most frequent outcome when cancer patients die is that whatever pain they have is controlled with narcotics and or sedatives. There often comes a point in poorly treatable cancer situations that the treatment is as bad or worse than the disease.
Can cancer be treated with radiation?
Cancers metastatic to bone are often painful but in some cases the discomfort is mild or more severe pain can be relieved with radiation therapy. There are specialists who assist in managing ...
Is pancreatic cancer bad for you?
Some cancers are more associated with pain than others. Pancreatic cancer can be particularly bad when it grows into nerves near the back of the pancreas. But I’ve had many patients with pancreatic cancer where pain wasn’t a problem. Instead, like many other patients with advanced cancers, they became weaker and more frail as their cancer worsened, ...
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…
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…
If A Loved One Declines 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. If she is still struggling with her decision, offer to listen and help her sort through the options. Ask if she'd like you to joi…
Who Uses Cam Instead of Medicine?
Effectiveness Evaluations
- The data show that avoiding or delaying conventional cancer care is associated with negative outcomes, and CAM used does not seem to modify this risk. But have any specific CAM interventions shown any benefit? Probably the most comprehensive single review is asystematic review by Gerber et al, published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in 2006, which looke…
Conclusion: Alternative Medicine Isn’T Real Medicine
- Despite widespread claims, there is no evidence to support the use of any CAM treatment as a replacement for conventional cancer care. As the studies in breast cancer show, delaying treatment or substituting CAM for conventional cancer care dramatically worsens outcomes.The results of these studies will hopefully provide patients and health provide...
References
- 1. Verkooijen HM, Fioretta GM, Rapiti E, Bonnefoi H, Vlastos G, Kurtz J, Schaefer P, Sappino AP, Schubert H, & Bouchardy C (2005). Patients’ refusal of surgery strongly impairs breast cancer survival. Annals of surgery, 242 (2), 276-80 PMID: 16041219 2. Chang EY, Glissmeyer M, Tonnes S, Hudson T, & Johnson N (2006). Outcomes of breast cancer in patients who use alternative thera…