Treatment Options

Last week, I received an email from a friend asking me to help encourage cancer patients to seek the right treatment, that is, the "traditional" way with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, etc. as versus to "alternative" treatment which mainly consist of herbal supplements and other non-traditional approaches.

Up until now, I still have not done anything about this. Why? I believe that each patient have the right and the final say as to what kind of treatment he/she wants, be it scientific or alternative. I believe in this although many people may not find the logic behind the choice/s people make.

I used to believe that it all boils down to economics. When the cash flow is getting low, people tend to turn to "cheaper" (often desperate and worse) options. Then a friend told me about the story of a cancer patient who opted for alternative medicine.

The patient was diagnosed with breast cancer although they could not find any lumps on her breasts. None appeared on the mammogram nor on the ultrasound. During surgery, it was found that 98% of the axillary lymph nodes that was taken from her were positive for tumors. This is not good, so it was decided that she get a mastectomy. The lab results came back and it was diagnosed as Stage IV breast cancer. I don't know what other treatment she had after that, but now, 3 or 4 months after the surgery, she went to see another doctor for follow-up as her doctor was out of the country at the time. Imagine the shock she got when the new doctor told her that she never had breast cancer, and that it had been lung cancer all along! Now, that person have to cope with a needless mastectomy on top of the cancer that is ravaging her body. She now opts for alternative medicine as her mode of treatment.

Then there are patients that would prefer the alternative treatment when they were told that they have a recurrence. After going through chemotherapy myself, having known the punishment such treatment gives to one's body, I can understand if they choose the alternative approach the second time around. To them, choosing that mode of treatment plus their faithin the Higher Being, is enough for them. They want a "better quality of life" where they will not have to live out their last days feeling the side effects of the drugs and treatments; where they know that although their life is being cut short, they can still embrace it and choose to live it to the fullest they know how.

So, traditional or alternative? I know what I will choose, and I might try to persuade someone to my way of thinking, but we also have to consider the circumstances surrounding the patient and just respect their choices even if we felt that it is wrong. When faced with death, people tend to grasp at anything to avoid it, they will believe anything they hear, and there will always be some scoundrel lurking around to take advantage of this, these are the people we have to watch out for, and they work on both sides of the treatment options, traditional and alternative.