Q. At age 81, I’ve been diagnosed with cancer. Sure, I’m scared, but it doesn’t help that I don’t understand half of what my specialist is talking about. Do you have any suggestions?
Talking with doctors about cancer and cancer treatments can feel like learning a new language, and people facing cancer diagnoses often need help to understand their treatment options, and the risks and benefits of each choice.
“People are making life-and-death decisions that may affect their survival, and they need to know what they’re getting themselves into,” says Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher.
Fagerlin and her colleagues have published a commentary in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that outlines 10 things health-care professionals can do to improve the way they communicate information about treatment risks to patients. Here are some of them:
Insist on plain language. If you don’t understand something your doctor says, ask him or her to explain it better. Doctors don’t know when patients don’t understand them, and they welcome questions.
Focus on the absolute risk. The most important statistic to consider is the chance that something will happen to you. Using relative risk makes both patients and doctors more likely to favor a treatment, because they believe it to be more beneficial than it actually may be.
Focus on the additional risk. You may be told the risk of a certain side effect occurring is 7 percent. But if you didn’t take the drug, is there a chance you’d still experience that? Ask what the additional or incremental risk of a treatment is.
The order of information matters. Studies have shown that the last thing you hear is most likely to stick. When making a treatment decision, don’t forget to consider all of the information and statistics you’ve learned.
Write it down. You may be presented with a lot of information. At the end of the discussion, ask your doctor if a written summary of the risks and benefits is available. Or ask your doctor to help you summarize.
Go to www.SeniorEmergencyKit.com for more tips on how to be better prepared for medical appointments. One way is to take someone with you to help you ask questions and understand the information. If a family member is not available, a CAREGiverSM from Home Instead Senior Care® could help. CAREGivers can be there if others can’t.
For more about the study, view – http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/19/jnci.djr318.abstract.
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