Most Women With Breast Cancer Want a Role in Medical Decisions
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Comstock/Jupiterimages(NEW YORK) — Breast cancer patients aren’t getting the control over their own bodies they would like, new research finds.
Almost 227,000 women will get breast cancer this year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. Now a study from Virginia Commonwealth University published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology online finds that two-thirds of early-stage breast cancer patients want to have a role in decisions about their medical treatment.
In a survey of 683 women with breast cancer in five countries, only 28 out of 100 said they wanted to leave treatment decisions to their doctors. But 46 out of 100 said their doctors ended up making the final decisions anyway.
On the other hand, women who had more involvement where their breast cancer treatment was concerned were less conflicted over the final decision and more satisfied with that decision. About a third of the women wanted to give doctors a final say over treatment decisions.
According to one expert, when there are multiple reasonable treatment options for early-stage breast cancer women will usually choose participatory decision making.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio