Cancer responds best to treatment the first time.

When you treat a tumor for the first time, there is hope that the treatment will destroy the cancer cells and keep them from returning. But if your tumor keeps growing, even with treatment, there is a lower chance that more treatment will help.

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This is especially true for solid-tumor cancers, like breast, colon, and lung cancer, and sarcoma. Doctors know a lot about how these cancers grow or shrink over time and how they respond to treatment. They have found that treatment after treatment offers little or no benefit.

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When is it time to think about stopping cancer treatment?

If you have had three different treatments and your cancer has grown or spread, more treatment usually will not help you feel better or increase your chance of living longer. Instead, more treatment could cause serious side effects that shorten your life and reduce the quality of the time you have left.

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Still, almost half of people with advanced cancer keep getting chemotherapy—even when it has almost no chance of helping them. They end up suffering when they should not have to.

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How do you know when to stop treatment?

It can be hard for both the patient and the doctor to talk about stopping treatment for the cancer and focus on end-of-life care. You may need to start the discussion. Your doctor should give you clear answers to any questions you ask.

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You need to understand how advanced your cancer is. Ask your doctor about the stage of your cancer and how much it has spread. Ask about your prognosis, or how long you have to live. No one can know exactly, but your doctor should be able to tell you a range of months or years. And you need to know if more treatment for cancer will help you live longer. Ask your doctor to explain the risks and benefits of any treatment. Fighting the cancer may no longer be the best thing for you.

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Sometimes, if there are no more known treatments and you want to continue trying, you can join a clinical trial. Clinical trials offer new, experimental treatments. Ask your doctor if you are eligible for a clinical trial. Or check www.clinicaltrials.gov.

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At any time during your treatment you can get help to relieve your symptoms and improve your quality of life. It’s called palliative care. If you decide that you don’t want more cancer treatment, then it’s time to focus on a kind of palliative care called hospice care.

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Hospice care improves your quality of life.

Care near the end of life is called hospice care. Hospice is care for your physical, mental, and spiritual needs at the end of life. It does not treat your cancer, but it helps keep you free of pain and other symptoms. And it helps you and your family get the most out of the time you have left together.

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Hospice care can be in your home, in a hospice facility, or at a hospital. Services include:

• Doctor and nursing care

• Pain management

• Medical equipment and medicines to ease symptoms

• Grief counseling for family and friends

• Social worker services

• Respite care, to give your caregivers a break

 

When is the right time for hospice care?

You may reach a point when there are no more effective cancer treatments for you. This is when you should seek hospice care, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). You may have reached that point if:

• Your doctor does not think you will live for more than six months.

• There are no other treatments with more benefits than risks.

• You want to focus on quality of life for the time you have left.

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*Reference source choosingwisely.org/patient-resources