More cancer patients are choosing less treatment in order to maintain their lifestyle, The Wall Street Journal reported April 2.
Patients are becoming more informed about their care, and with more options to choose from, many select less treatment if it doesn't affect survival. Older patients are especially prone to select fewer treatments to maintain their lifestyle, according to the report, even if the risk for disease progression is higher.
"Patients have many more options today than they did even a few years ago," Jean Wright, MD, a radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, told the Journal. "It makes the decision process much more complicated."
Advancing medicine and technology allows for personalized care across many cancers. Patients, especially older patients who are less likely to die from cancer, are choosing less surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
Mary Boyd, 81, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and decided to have only part of her breast removed and skip some treatment in order to stay active.
"Once I got my arms around it and really understood it wasn't a death sentence, then next thing I wanted to do was say, OK, how do I maintain my lifestyle?" she said in the report.