Megan SerafinHCS 330Step 2

Chemotherapy Options

In today’s medical field it is very hard to understand all the fancy terminology and all of

the different treatment options available concerning a specific disease. When a patient is first

diagnosed with breast cancer, she is immediately faced with many questions and concerns. It is

very important for the patient to completely understand each option available regarding

chemotherapy treatments and which one to choose that will be most beneficial to them. But how

is this done?

After diagnosis, the patient goes to several doctor appointments to discuss everything that

deals with breast cancer and what to expect in the future. One major area of focus is the

chemotherapy treatment and which one should be chosen. The doctor gives you several print

outs of pages and pages of information about the different chemotherapy options available for

the patient. They will explain each option and which they think would be the best for them and

their given situation, but that is where it stops. The patient has the final decision. The doctor

does not want to be held responsible if the treatment doesn’t work as they wanted it to or if it

would bring unexpected problems such as a reaction to the drug. For middle aged women with

triple negative breast cancer, it is much more difficult to choose the right chemotherapy. There

are many more things to take into account such as the recurrence of the cancer, being young, and

the effects the chemo could have on the quality of life while receiving it. The problem is that we

have so much information, but so little guidance.

In our current healthcare system we have a few options that could assist these women in

their decision making, but only minimally. These options include doctors, support groups,

websites and hand outs. These are easily accessible for anyone with the internet or a hospital

close by. Through my research about what is currently available in assistance, I came across a

website called abcdbreastcancersupport.org. This website was the only one that offered any other

insight as to what route of chemo the patient should choose. Through this website, the patient

will fill out a consent form asking about their demographic, clinical background such as the

stage, progression and all the details about their cancer, their life circumstances including other

health challenges, and if they are a parent or working full- time. From this information, they will

match you with a mentor who has had the same or a very similar case of breast cancer. These

ABCD Mentors (After Breast Cancer Diagnosis) are trained volunteers who have experienced

breast cancer personally and understand the most current information. These mentors have

completed a breast cancer support training program. Their contact information is given to the

patient to offer support and some insight based on what they have received in the past. This is

very beneficial coming from someone who has been there and knows what each step is like from

a personal standpoint.

With the rate of breast cancer being over 25% of the total number of new cases of cancer

diagnosed each year and also being the most common type of cancer among women, a new

method to determine the right chemotherapy needs to be enforced. To fix this a website or

information session should be offered. Through this website that I hope to create, it would allow

a newly diagnosed patient figure out which chemotherapy to choose. Through every diagnosis of

breast cancer, each case is very different. This website would allow the patient to select her exact

diagnosis that would lead her to the number one recommended option, followed by the number

two and three options. Because there are hundreds of different chemotherapies to treat breast

cancer, I narrowed it down to triple negative breast cancer. In triple negative breast cancer there

are three categories of treatment which are offered to all patients: 1. Treatments that will allow

for the best quality of life with minimal side effects, 2. Very aggressive treatments in which the

patient would not be concerned with the side effects and 3. A treatment that is a clinical trial

where the patient is involved in hospital-controlled experimentation with the newest drugs that

are not yet FDA approved.

Deciding which chemotherapy treatment is the most imperative part of getting rid of

cancer most effectively. It is not an easy task either. Having extra support will directly point you

to the most beneficial treatment, making things a lot easier for these women with breast cancer.

With the current information that is available such as the abcdbreastcancersupport.com website,

the information from the doctor, paired with the new website, navigating through each therapy

will be much easier.

Works Cited

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/Statistics.html

http://www.abcdbreastcancersupport.org/get-support/get-a-mentor/