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Read the Case Study below titled Treating Breast Cancer. Then read the 5 questions listed below. Word process your responses to the questions and submit them as an attachment to this assignment. Be sure to answer all parts of each question and be sure to discuss specific examples to support your responses. Once you have considered your responses to the questions listed below you can submit this assignment as a file upload or as text entry in the space provided. Your responses should be organized and should be written in complete sentences.
1. If you or a family member were diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, how would you feel about the health care professionals using the team approach? If you favor the team approach, explain why do you favor it. If you do not, explain why you don’t.
2. What advantages and disadvantages do you think there would be to using teams in this context. Explain 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages.
3. Do you think the advantages of the team approach outweigh the disadvantages? Is so, in what ways do they weigh the disadvantages, and if not, why don’t they?
4. What lessons might this case study illustrate for small group communication your own life or family?
5. If you were the person who was diagnosed, how would you encourage small group communication in your family (or in some primary group) to handle the issue? Describe a specific example.
TREATING BREAST CANCER
Imagine that you are 29-year-old Melissa, or her husband Bradley. Melissa has just been diagnosed with stage-2 breast cancer. Stage 1 is the smallest tumor and stage 4 is the largest. It is also of an aggressive (fast-growing) type. Your doctor recommends a bilateral mastectomy, which means that both breasts would be removed. What would you do?
Most people faced with such shocking news would be motivated to get a second opinion from another doctor. Luckily, breast cancer treatment has progressed so dramatically in recent years that patients like Melissa do not have to face that dilemma. Once the patient has had an initial diagnosis of breast cancer, hospitals today utilize a team approach for deciding on the best methods for treating the case. The team consists of the primary care physician, the oncologist (cancer specialist), the radiologist (X ray specialist), the surgeon, the pathologist (tissue expert), the nurse/oncology specialist, the reconstructive/plastic surgeon, and the oncology social worker. This team of highly educated and trained professionals meets to discuss the diagnosis and possible treatments. Then they meet with the patient and her family to discuss the team’s decision. As difficult as it is to accept the decision to move forward with the bilateral mastectomy, patients do feel that all the alternatives have been thoroughly explored and the one recommended course of action is the right one.
Research at the University of Michigan has shown that a second opinion from a team of specialists after an initial diagnosis of breast cancer has resulted in a significant change in the recommended surgical treatment in more than half of cases (Bakalar, 2006). Teams that review cancer diagnosis and treatment recommendations look over a case and discuss it until they arrive at a unanimous-consensus treatment recommendation. Dr. Eileen Rokovitch, an assistant professor in the depart-ment of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto, said the University of Michigan study added to an increasing body of evidence that a multidisciplinary approach is beneficial. When they are seen by a team of specialists, patients at lower risk may receive less aggressive treatment, and patients deemed at higher risk may get more aggressive treatments. This is not unique to breast cancer. There is evidence for this approach in other life-threatening diseases as well.
Dr. Hiram Cody III, director of breast services at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, was impressed with the study. Cody said, “This study is very, very well done.” The message here is that when a patient has a cancer diagnosis, getting a team second opinion is a very good bang for the buck.
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Case Study Grading Rubric |
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Criteria |
Ratings |
Pts |
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Question 1 view longer description |
Answered question effectively and incorporated effective examples and/or course concepts into the response |
4 pts |
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Question 2 |
Answered question effectively and incorporated effective examples and/or course concepts into the response Answered question, but incorporation of course concepts or illustrative examples was sketchy or needed more development Minimally answered question, but did not sufficiently incorporate course concepts and/or examples Answered question but provided no supporting examples Insufficient response or question was not answered at all |
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Question 3 |
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Question 4 |
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Question 5 |
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Total Points: 20 |
