UNC researchers traveled to Chicago this week to present their latest cancer research at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.
Leading the group was Dr. Ronald Chen, a professor at UNC’s department of radiation oncology. He studies the impacts of aggressive cancer treatments at the end of a patient’s life.
“I think it’s widely recognized that aggressive treatments, such as chemotherapy, at the very end of a patient’s life, are probably more harmful than helpful,” Chen said.
Chen studied over 28,000 cancer patients under the age of 65. His team looked at the last 30 days of the patients’ lives and what they chose to do – how many underwent invasive procedures, were admitted to the hospital or emergency room, chose to continue chemo therapy or even died in the hospital.
The results showed that patients highly favored taking action.
“The younger cancer patients may have a desire to be more aggressive and perhaps not to give up hope, even at the very end of life.”
Even at the very end of life, 71-76 percent of patients chose to continue aggressive cancer treatments. Chen also said that two-thirds of patients were admitted to the hospital or emergency room, and one-third died in the hospital instead of at home.
Chen says these statistics suggest a lack of communication between doctors and their patients.
“I think physicians can do a better job talking to their patients about their goals of care and talking about realistic expectations about how much benefit continued aggressive care would offer the patient.”
He says ceasing aggressive treatment isn’t a sign of giving up, rather, an option to preserve quality of life.
“Stopping chemotherapy, stopping radiation, is really not giving up hope, but rather, protecting a patient’s quality of life so they can have the best quality of the remainder of their life to be with their families to be at home.”
In fact, Chen’s study is supported by research from Stanford Medicine that revealed 88 percent of doctors who were diagnosed with terminal cancers, chose to forgo the aggressive treatments and focus on enjoying their final days.
