Читать книгу The Cancer Directory - Dr. Daniel Rosy - Страница 78

When reviewing your options for treatment and before you make your treatment decision, make sure you have collected together all the relevant information by going through the checklist below.

• Options on offer at the hospital in your area

• Range of options on offer at the leading centre of excellence for your particular cancer

• Options that might be available in other parts of the world

• Research trial alternatives

• Alternative cancer medicine choices

• Your integrated medicine complementary and self-help options.

Hopefully, all this information has given you clear guidance on how to find what options are available at your hospital, including getting the opinions of the different specialists mentioned, where appropriate.

If you would like an opinion from a centre of excellence, you need a referral from your GP or consultant. In the UK, it is usually possible to get such an opinion on the NHS if it is clear that the services offered by such a centre are more comprehensive than what is available in your own area. If you have health insurance, check first that your policy covers you for second or third opinions. Treatments in another country are unlikely to be covered by your health insurance, and you should check costs carefully before embarking on this route.

Sometimes, doctors in foreign medical centres are prepared to give an initial opinion of what they can offer you on the strength of letters from your consultants, and having seen your X-rays and/or scans. Because of major advances in digital technology, it is now also possible to send scans to distant locations via e-mail (not to mention by post or courier).

This form of consultation, while lacking the personal touch, can save costly and exhausting trips abroad unless there is likely to be a significant benefit.

How far you wish to go with this process of getting a ‘world picture’ is entirely up to you. For some, this may feel like far too great a burden whereas, for others, it will be a source of great comfort to know that no stone has been left unturned.

Reviewing your alternative cancer treatment options is covered in Chapter 5. A great number of alternative cancer remedies are on offer around the world, with variable levels of information as to their effectiveness. In Chapter 5, you will find:

• basic information on how to use the most well-known alternative cancer medicines

• the approximate cost of their use

• the current level of scientific information about them

• whether you can self-administer them or not (i.e. are they available for sale, by prescription only or clinic-based?).

Reviewing what the complementary medicine and self-help approaches have to offer is the subject of Chapters 7 and 8.