[AlaskaAngel]

yanyan,

I share the feeling, although for the most part I am thankful to have the choice, as so many others on the planet do not. I did not turn down chemotherapy myself.

So to me there is a lot of responsibility involved in making choices about treatment.

When I talked with the onc I was referred to, one way in which I tried to be responsible in determining treatment was to request to participate in a relevant clinical trial, so that at least I might be helping to advance treatment options for all others as well as myself. I didn't know how to go about it, but mistakenly thought my oncologist would provide some guidance. At the time, I would have been eligible for one of the trials using trastuzumab for adjuvant treatment that was in progress. The oncologist did not let me know anything about the trials for HER2 positive patients, and by the time it was available, my onc felt there would be no benefit to me. In a way, given that I never had trastuzumab and have not recurred, I am thankful that the major cost of it was not "wasted" on me, because it and all the monitoring and testing that go with it are quite spendy.

I do think it is not very intelligent to apply expensive and sometimes damaging treatments to the patients who are at lowest risk when there is no way to know which ones benefit (especially when most get no benefit), and when there is no way to know for which patients the treatment may worsen the disease.

A.A.