Oncologists and their patients aren’t necessarily on the same page when it comes to communicating information, according to an abstract presented recently at the Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium in Orlando. Among patients with colorectal cancer who had already undergone chemotherapy, 36% of them said they would be willing to repeat the experience if it yielded a 1% absolute reduction in relapse, and 57% said they would submit to another round of chemotherapy if it reduced cancer recurrence by 3%, reports MedPage Today. Yet only 19% of the patients’ physicians said their patients would agree to more chemotherapy for a 1% reduction in relapse.
The study emphasizes “the importance of better communication between physicians and patients to ensure that physicians clearly understand patient expectations regarding treatment, and so that patients receive clear and accurate information about the risks and benefits of therapy,” said Neil Love, MD, president of Research in Practice, an oncology education company. Love also found that many patients received their primary information about chemotherapy from the Internet or from friends and relatives, which often proved to be incorrect.
