Shared Decision-Making: Your Role in Lung Cancer Treatment Choices
Shared-Decision Making: Your Role in Lung Cancer Treatment Choices from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Lung cancer treatment decisions involve various factors, but what role should the patient play when choosing therapy? Lung cancer expert Dr. Manish Patel explains the considerations involved, the concept of shared decision-making when making a treatment choice, and provides questions to ask about a proposed treatment plan.
Dr. Manish Patel is a medical oncologist and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation at the University of Minnesota. Learn more about Dr. Patel, here.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
When making a treatment choice, what three key considerations are there for lung cancer patients?
Dr. Patel:
Well, I think always the first one that’s most important is really the patient in front of me, you know, what their physical function is, what their other medical problems that they might have. Number two is always going to be to consider the stage of the cancer, how advanced the cancer is. And then really with regards to lung cancer these days, we really have to consider what kind of lung cancer it is. And I don’t mean necessarily just differentiating between the kinda major subtypes of lung cancer, but really looking at more detailed understanding of the specific type of lung cancer because it does, sort of, guide our treatment.
Katherine Banwell:
The term “shared decision-making” is being used a lot lately when talking about patient care. What does that term mean to you?
Dr. Patel:
Well, I think what that means is as the oncologist – the treating oncologist – my role is to educate the patient on what the treatment options are, give my recommendations of what I think the best options are for that individual patient.
But really the shared decision-making ultimately means that we have a discussion about what the goals of the patient are and how those match up with what my recommendations are and then come up with a treatment plan that suits both mine and the patient’s needs.
Katherine Banwell:
I know some patients are hesitant to talk to their doctor about questions they may have about how they’re feeling.
Does that come into the shared decision process?
Dr. Patel:
I think it does in some ways. I mean, we do try to explore how much the patient is understanding from what we’re talking about, also make a lot of attempts to understand the concerns or hesitations that a patient might have about what we’re talking about, or perhaps if they are hesitant to talk about certain aspects of their health with us. But we do try to tease that out as much as we can in our patient encounters so we can make really the best decision for that patient.
Katherine Banwell:
Are there questions that patients should consider asking about their proposed treatment plan?
Dr. Patel:
Well, I think it’s always useful for patients to ask, “What can they expect?” You know, we talk a lot about potential side effects – what can happen with the treatments – and oftentimes we’re discussing them in sort of worst-case scenarios.
But I think in some ways it’s sometimes helpful for patients to know what do we expect to happen, why we are discussing the extreme cases – best- and worst-case scenarios – really having an idea of what they should expect from treatment.
