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Study shows cancer patients overestimate value of chemo

Most patients getting chemotherapy for incurable lung or colon cancers mistakenly believe that the treatment can cure them rather than just buy them some more time or ease their symptoms, a major study suggests. Researchers say doctors either are not being honest enough with patients or people are in denial...

By Marilynn Marchionne | Updated on October 24, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — Most patients getting chemotherapy for incurable lung or colon cancers mistakenly believe that the treatment can cure them rather than just buy them some more time or ease their symptoms, a major study suggests. Researchers say doctors either are not being honest enough with patients or people are in denial that they have a terminal disease.

The study highlights the problem of overtreatment at the end of life — futile care that simply prolongs dying. It’s one reason that one quarter of all Medicare spending occurs in the last year of life.

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