Expert Perspective | The Value of Empowering Endometrial Cancer Patients and Care Partners
How can patients feel empowered after an endometrial cancer diagnosis? Dr. Hinchcliff emphasizes seeing a GYN oncologist, asking questions, and bringing a care partner to appointments for support and understanding key decisions.
Dr. Emily Hinchcliff is a Gynecologic Oncologist at Northwestern Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Hinchcliff.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
As a provider, Dr. Hinchcliff, how do you empower care partners and patients who have been diagnosed with endometrial cancer?
Dr. Emily Hinchcliff:
So, I think that one of the most important things about a diagnosis of cancer is to develop the relationship with your physician. I think that it is truly a partnership, and it is an incredibly important thing as you think about the next steps in your treatment. For someone who’s diagnosed with endometrial cancer – or, honestly, cancer in general – making sure that you’re seeing a cancer specialist in obstetrics and gynecology – it can actually be sometimes a little bit difficult.
You might have gotten your diagnosis with a general OB/GYN, but it’s very important to see a GYN oncologist – a cancer-specific doctor – because we’ve actually shown that patients who see GYN oncologists are more likely to get guideline-appropriate care – so, care within what we think of as the right standard – and then they tend to do better with their cancer. So, that’s kind of the first step, is finding that doctor and developing the relationship with them.
The second thing that I would say is that you should ask questions. Bringing people to your appointments to have an extra set of ears is always helpful. Taking notes and trying to keep track yourself of what was talked about in your appointment, I always encourage my patients to do, but really, asking questions. So, making sure that you know what those molecular tests are that your doctor is sending, making sure you know, once they’re sent, what your results were and how that might change what your treatment will be.
Now, you don’t need to go and get a degree in biology or go to medical school. I think that that’s a lot to ask someone going through a cancer journey, but it is really important that you understand where those key decision points might be made because that allows you to feel not only like your own advocate, but that you have some ownership of those decisions and you understand why the decisions are being made in the way that they’re being made.
