When you lie in bed late at night, have you ever thought about a question: what if you have cancer one day?
Presumably, many people have fantasized, and everyone seems to have the same answer: if one day I have cancer and have reached the advanced stage, then I simply will not treat it, take the money for treatment to complete some wishes that have never been fulfilled, and then have no regrets, quietly find a place, or go back to the place where I lived when I was a child and wait for death to come.
Yes, there are indeed such examples in real life, but they did not give up treatment from the time of diagnosis, but gave up treatment when the family was ruined, there was no way to borrow, and the condition was completely hopeless, and finally death came and the patient died of cancer.
In our eyes, this kind of bankruptcy is very undesirable, because everyone believes that cancer is an incurable disease, especially advanced cancer is equal to death. The result of blind treatment is nothing more than that people and money are empty. Cancer patients have passed away, but their families are carrying huge debts, and their future lives are difficult.
So the question is, should patients with advanced cancer be treated or need to give up treatment?
Advanced cancer is actually a general term for the metastasis and spread of cancer, but in fact, it is more detailed in clinical division. Different types of malignancies have different definitions of stages. However, in most cases, the cancer will be divided into four different periods, stage THREE and stage IV are advanced stages, when cancer cells have metastasized throughout the body with multiple organs and tissues.
It cannot be denied that the vast majority of advanced cancers cannot achieve clinical cure, or even have no hope of survival with tumors. For example, the more dangerous hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, lung small cell carcinoma, etc., even in the early stage, the possibility of clinical cure is very low, and the patient's condition may deteriorate in a short period of time, or even die in just a few months.
However, there are some advanced cancers that do have the possibility of clinical cure, such as leukemia, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, lymphoma and so on. Because such malignant tumors are more sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy, and in recent years, new anti-cancer drugs have emerged, so their treatment effect is relatively better.
Moreover, even if the cancer cannot be clinically cured, after entering the advanced stage of cancer, the clinical treatment purpose has already changed, from achieving cancer cure to prolonging the life of patients and improving the quality of life. A large number of studies and surveys have shown that patients who receive treatment in advanced cancer have greatly improved their quality of life and prolonged their survival compared with patients who have given up treatment.
However, it is true that everyone cannot decide whether to treat advanced cancer from the clinical aspect alone, because patients and families need to consider too much!
Usually, clinicians only consider whether the patient's condition is necessary to treat and whether the patient's body can withstand the various side effects of the treatment. However, patients and families need to consider a number of aspects, such as whether the patient is willing to undergo further treatment, and whether the family conditions can afford the high cost of treatment. If the patient no longer has any willingness to be treated, even if the family insists on treatment, the cooperation between the patient and the doctor will be reduced;
Moreover, everyone should recognize the true situation of the patient, if the patient's clinical cure has no hope, the chance of achieving tumor survival is minimal, or it has reached the end of the disease.
Even if it is possible to alleviate symptoms and reduce physical pain through treatment, family members need to consider a comprehensive monetary factor. After all, the cost of cancer treatment is not a small number, especially after starting targeted drugs and immunotherapy, the cost can even reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
All in all, whether or not patients with advanced cancer should be treated should be considered in combination with multiple aspects. If the patient still has the need for treatment, active coordination is necessary.
However, if the patient's condition can not be reversed, the family also needs to face and accept the reality, excessive medical treatment, meaningless treatment costs, but only prolong the patient's pain.