One very common question that we receive on the cancer hotline is about prognosis -- the likely course our outcome of a disease. Prognosis is important because it informs the potential benefits and risks or different treatments. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between what information about prognosis people expect to be available and what doctors can actually offer. This relates not only to a lack of information available to doctors about prognosis in general but also to the simple fact that estimating someone's life expectancy is a complex and difficult task. To do that in an emotionally-charged situation (such as with a diagnosis of cancer or another life-threatening condition) is even harder. This article talks about the importance of prognosis and its relative lack of development in the medical research and literature.
"Why Doctors Can't Predict How Long a Patient Will Live" by Pauline Chen
Published in the New York Times, January 19, 2012
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/why-doctors-cant-predict-how-long-a-patient-will-live/
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment