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When Does Treatment in Cancer Care Become Futile?
1Rush University Medical Center.
Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing
|January 22, 2020
Summary
Medical futility involves excessive treatments with minimal chance of positive outcomes. If interventions don't improve quality of life or allow patients to pursue life goals, they may be considered futile.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Clinical Practice
Background:
- Futility in medicine is characterized by interventions offering little hope of positive clinical outcomes.
- Defining and identifying futile treatments is crucial for patient care and resource allocation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the concept of medical futility.
- To provide a framework for identifying treatments that may be considered futile based on patient-centered goals.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of medical futility.
- Review of ethical considerations in end-of-life care.
Main Results:
- Futility is linked to interventions that do not alleviate patient preoccupation with illness.
- Treatments failing to enable patients to pursue life goals may be deemed futile.
Conclusions:
- A patient-centered approach is essential in determining medical futility.
- Identifying futile treatments requires considering both clinical outcomes and the patient's life aspirations.
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