Oncologists Overtreat Patients at End of Life

When it comes to end-of-life care for patients with cancer, “I think that there is a real deficit in
our training,” says Nathan I. Cherny, MD, director of the Cancer Pain and Palliative Medicine
Service at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Dr. Cherney and colleagues
recently examined factors contributing to oncologists overtreating patients at the end of life. He
discusses key findings and ways to address this continued problem with Robert A. Figlin, MD,
the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology-Oncology at the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center
in Los Angeles. “When one reads practice guidelines, they never include a section of when
further treatment is more likely to be harmful than helpful,” Dr. Cherny notes. “Unless it appears
in every illness guideline, the message does not necessarily get through that this is something
that is really important.”

Dr. Cherny reported serving as a consultant for and owning stock in Canopy Care.

Dr. Figlin reported various financial relationships.