Taking a Break from Sarcoma Treatment
Dr. Leonard Wexler: A question that comes up often is about ending treatment or taking a break from treatment. And I think it's imperative for any patient faced with that choice and any physician counseling that patient, to clarify absolutely what the patient understands about his or her disease status and the trajectory of their disease and their prognosis. If I know of a very promising new drug that has had astonishingly good results, I may try more coercivvely to talk them out of a decision to take a break from treatment.
On the other hand, if their disease is not imposing a clinical burden on how they're feeling, and there's nothing terribly promising out there, then it's a decision that I would support wholeheartedly and endorse. But I think it's important to differentiate not actively treating the cancer and no longer treating the person.