November 14, 2008

Doctors use too much chemo

It is a growing concern that patients who are terminally ill are given chemotherapy in the later stages of their lives, a review of six hundred cancer patients found.

The review discovered that out of these patients around twenty five per cent who had this treatment, that it actually caused death or at the very least hastened it.

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death has recommended that this treatment in the later stages of the illness should be reduced or not used at all.

There is no doubt that chemotherapy is a treatment that works well in the early stages of cancer, but towards the end, maybe hands on care should replace this treatment.

Source [BBC]