1. Megan Serafin
HCS 330
Step 2
Chemotherapy Options
In today’s medical field it is very hard to understand all the fancy terminology and all of
the different treatment options available concerning a specific disease. When a patient is first
diagnosed with breast cancer, she is immediately faced with many questions and concerns. It is
very important for the patient to completely understand each option available regarding
chemotherapy treatments and which one to choose that will be most beneficial to them. But how
is this done?
After diagnosis, the patient goes to several doctor appointments to discuss everything that
deals with breast cancer and what to expect in the future. One major area of focus is the
chemotherapy treatment and which one should be chosen. The doctor gives you several print
outs of pages and pages of information about the different chemotherapy options available for
the patient. They will explain each option and which they think would be the best for them and
their given situation, but that is where it stops. The patient has the final decision. The doctor
does not want to be held responsible if the treatment doesn’t work as they wanted it to or if it
would bring unexpected problems such as a reaction to the drug. For middle aged women with
triple negative breast cancer, it is much more difficult to choose the right chemotherapy. There
are many more things to take into account such as the recurrence of the cancer, being young, and
the effects the chemo could have on the quality of life while receiving it. The problem is that we
have so much information, but so little guidance.
In our current healthcare system we have a few options that could assist these women in
their decision making, but only minimally. These options include doctors, support groups,

2. websites and hand outs. These are easily accessible for anyone with the internet or a hospital
close by. Through my research about what is currently available in assistance, I came across a
website called abcdbreastcancersupport.org. This website was the only one that offered any other
insight as to what route of chemo the patient should choose. Through this website, the patient
will fill out a consent form asking about their demographic, clinical background such as the
stage, progression and all the details about their cancer, their life circumstances including other
health challenges, and if they are a parent or working full- time. From this information, they will
match you with a mentor who has had the same or a very similar case of breast cancer. These
ABCD Mentors (After Breast Cancer Diagnosis) are trained volunteers who have experienced
breast cancer personally and understand the most current information. These mentors have
completed a breast cancer support training program. Their contact information is given to the
patient to offer support and some insight based on what they have received in the past. This is
very beneficial coming from someone who has been there and knows what each step is like from
a personal standpoint.
With the rate of breast cancer being over 25% of the total number of new cases of cancer
diagnosed each year and also being the most common type of cancer among women, a new
method to determine the right chemotherapy needs to be enforced. To fix this a website or
information session should be offered. Through this website that I hope to create, it would allow
a newly diagnosed patient figure out which chemotherapy to choose. Through every diagnosis of
breast cancer, each case is very different. This website would allow the patient to select her exact
diagnosis that would lead her to the number one recommended option, followed by the number
two and three options. Because there are hundreds of different chemotherapies to treat breast
cancer, I narrowed it down to triple negative breast cancer. In triple negative breast cancer there

3. are three categories of treatment which are offered to all patients: 1. Treatments that will allow
for the best quality of life with minimal side effects, 2. Very aggressive treatments in which the
patient would not be concerned with the side effects and 3. A treatment that is a clinical trial
where the patient is involved in hospital-controlled experimentation with the newest drugs that
are not yet FDA approved.
Deciding which chemotherapy treatment is the most imperative part of getting rid of
cancer most effectively. It is not an easy task either. Having extra support will directly point you
to the most beneficial treatment, making things a lot easier for these women with breast cancer.
With the current information that is available such as the abcdbreastcancersupport.com website,
the information from the doctor, paired with the new website, navigating through each therapy
will be much easier.

4. Works Cited
http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/Statistics.html
http://www.abcdbreastcancersupport.org/get-support/get-a-mentor/