Oncologists Struggling With Cancer Deaths Among Millennial Patients

Oncology News Central Peer-Spectives

Oncologists are struggling with the rising cancer mortality rate among millennial patients. "I think treating people our own age is definitely a trigger for a lot of people," said Sunita Puri, MD, a palliative-care physician and author. She spoke with Robert A. Figlin, MD, the Steven Spielberg Family Chair in Hematology-Oncology at the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles, about her recent article in The Atlantic, "The Silence Doctors Are Keeping About Millennial Deaths." Dr. Puri explained how age bias and other factors have led to challenges in providing the care that younger adults with terminal cancer both want and need. "We should be matching up medical treatment with the values of the patient. Younger people, in my experience, don't want to be protected from the truth," she said.

Dr. Puri and Dr. Figlin discussed how certain training can help and which misperceptions should be challenged. "I think we're socialized as doctors to equate treatment, survival, benefit, and cure as our scope of care. But part of our care is absolutely seeing and hearing the person in front of us and understanding that person as a distinct individual."