cancer questions
some questions that you may want to consider asking your Doctor
What is my diagnosis?
Is this a fast growing or slow growing cancer?
How long has it been growing in my body?
What do you think caused it?
Do you think my diet, pollution or stress had anything to do with it?
Was it genetic?
treatment options
What treatment do you recommend?
What are the drugs that you suggest for my treatment?
Can I get a list of all the drugs that will be involved in my treatment?
What are the side effects of these drugs, both short and long term?
Do any of these drugs have life threatening side effects and are the side effect permanent?
How old are the drugs you recommend? How long have they been around?
Is this treatment curative or palliative?
If curative:
If the treatment you recommend doesn’t actually cure my cancer, then what is the next option?
What is the recurrence rate after this treatment? Where do you get that statistic from?
If palliative:
What’s the point of chemo or radiation if it’s not going to cure me?
How much time do you think I have to live if I do this treatment?
How much time do you think I have to live if I do nothing?
What is the 5 year disease-free survival rate for my specific diagnosis with this treatment protocol?
What is the 5 year disease-free survival rate for my specific cancer if I do nothing?
How much does chemo contribute to 5 year survival for my cancer? What about 10 year survival?
May I have copies of the Material Safety Data Sheets on all the drugs I’ll be taking? I would like to take them home with me today to review them.
Would you do this treatment if you had the same diagnosis as me? Or would you just try to make the most of the time you have left?
What would you do if you were me?
Are you married? Do you have children?
If your husband/wife had this cancer would you give them this treatment?
What if it was your child? Would you give them this treatment?
What other treatment options are available besides what we’ve discussed?
diet questions
What do you recommend I eat while doing chemotherapy
What’s the best anti-cancer diet?
Are there any foods that I should avoid eating?
I am thinking about going onto a plant-based diet, eating lots of raw fruits and vegetables, and juicing, is that ok?
get references
How many patients do you treat per year?
How many patients have you permanently cured of my disease?
I’m really nervous about this and would like to speak to 5 of your patients with the same cancer as me that are cancer-free after 5 years. Is that possible?
Do you have any patients with my kind of cancer that are in remission after 10 years? Can I speak to some of them?
If the doctor balks at this would you be willing to call and ask them personally if they would talk to me?
final questions
I would like to take some time to change my life, would that be possible? How much time do I have to do this?
How much time do I have to think about all this and make my decision? Is it possible for the body to heal itself of cancer?
If I decide not to do treatment, in order to enjoy the time I have left, will you support me with periodic blood tests and scans?
Can I get a copy of my medical records before I leave today?