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•  More than ten million Americans are cancer survivors, but that number doesn't seem to help much when you are the patient, some doctor is talking, and the word "cancer" comes up.  In discussions like this, I've learned from experience that after the word "cancer", all other words and advice are likely lost, and another visit for options in a day or two is needed.  Then it is my most important job to make available to her the very best treatment, and to help her believe in it.
• Yesterday I asked another patient, a 95 year-old friend of mine who is a breast cancer survivor how it all happened with her.  She described discovering a marble sized hard lump in her breast twenty years earlier.  She was referred to a surgeon who gave her options of treatment.  The patient then chose to have a simple mastectomy.  She said, "I didn't get excited, I just trusted the doctor.  He told me we don't play around with this stuff, and I believed him."
• This wise woman went on to tell me about her relative who also had a breast lump, was afraid, didn't get help, and didn't live a year.  "Better to just think of it like getting a new hip.  Get it taken care of, and get on with life."  She said.
• Trust is the key ingredient to this story of cancer.  First, the physician must truly deliver the very best treatment options available anywhere… and then the patient must know and believe she is receiving the best treatment.  Like my 95 year-old patient said, "I just trusted the doctor."
•  Take home message:
•    1. Caring for cancer patients requires a physician to know how to communicate well;

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