Cancer World Newsletter - Patient Voice, What counts as a 'successful' outcome?

Doctors frequently feel they have failed a patient if they are unable to cure them. But when a cancer cannot be cured, there are other yardsticks patients use to judge the success of their treatment. This Patient Voice hears from four people who speak from personal experience. And it asks whether we need to adopt a more nuanced understanding of ‘success’, based on matching the patient’s priorities to the best outcome that can be hoped for. What do you think? How do you measure the success of a treatment? Do you try to reach agreement with your patients about what would constitute a successful outcome? Could a ‘tool’ that helps doctors and patients look at their goal in terms that go beyond the strictly medical, to incorporate wider aspects of living with cancer, help both sides feel they can achieve success even when there is no cure?  You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.