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Letter to the Editor |
Editor, www.LungCancerOnline.org, Executive Director, Lung Cancer Online Foundation
Correspondence: kparles{at}lungcanceronline.org
TO THE EDITOR:
As a lung cancer patient and advocate, I have been enormously heartened the past few months with the recent discovery of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and its immediate and long-term implications for improved treatment and extended survival for people with lung and other cancers.
In reading about the promise and potential of this new finding in Dr. Bruce Chabner’s editorial, "The Miracle of Iressa" [1], I was jolted from my excitement by one particular phrase. Dr. Chabner stated that "...patients will continue to receive Iressa when they fail chemotherapy." When they fail chemotherapy? Have the patients really "failed" when chemotherapy drugs do not work? Of course they haven’t. So why use a phrase that implies blame?
Dr. Chabner, whom I know to be an excellent and sensitive oncologist, is far from alone in expressing the failure of cancer treatment in a less than patient-friendly way. This unfortunate convention is used in the medical literature, at professional conferences, and not surprisingly, in the clinic. It is common for oncologists to tell patients that they "failed drug X." By telling patients they failed to respond to treatment, doctors may increase the guilt that many patients already struggle with as a result of their cancer diagnoses. For others, like me, it becomes an annoying refrain. At minimum, it puts emotional distance between doctor and patient and undermines the doctor-patient relationship. Just imagine under the same circumstances if the patient said to the doctor, "You failed to give me the right drug to treat my cancer." The question isn’t who failed, but what failed.
I ask Dr. Chabner and The Oncologist readers to be mindful of the language used when discussing the failure of therapies in cancer patients. Something as simple as, "Drug X didn’t work for you, maybe this one will," is one example. There are numerous ways to express the failure of cancer treatment without failing the patient, too.
Sincerely,
Karen Parles, MLS
Editor, www.LungCancerOnline.org
Executive Director,
Lung Cancer Online Foundation
kparles{at}lungcanceronline.org
REFERENCE
Editor-in-Chief, The Oncologist, Clinical Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard University, Chief Medical Officer, Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care
FROM THE EDITOR:
Our reader, Karen Parles, points out an important, and unfortunate, mistaken use of the word "failure" in my recent editorial, describing a patient’s lack of response to Iressa therapy [1]. The failure of treatment is not the patient’s fault in any regard. The fault lies with the current state of science, and our understanding of the disease. The convenient phrase "failure," so often used in our society to describe an unhappy outcome beyond the control of the individual, has no place in the context of unsuccessful treatment of a disease such as cancer. I apologize for myself and my colleagues, who so often confuse outcome with intent, and I thank Karen Parles for raising our consciousness to the all-important use and impact of our words.
I assure her that I have expunged "that phrase" from my vernacular ... and I urge my colleagues to do likewise.
Bruce Chabner, M.D.
Editor-in-Chief, The Oncologist
Clinical Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Harvard University
Chief Medical Officer, Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care
REFERENCE
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