Weighing Costs in Choosing Cancer Care

Helen Geiger of Whiting sits in her kitchen. Whiting, N.J., Saturday, March 22, 2008. Is it worth $20,000 to extend a cancer patient's life by, say, a month or two? It's an awful question often side-stepped in doctors' offices. Later this year, oncologists are to get guidelines that for the first time will encourage straight talk with their patients about chemotherapy costs -- not just for last-ditch cases or the uninsured, but for everyone. The goal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's planned advice isn't to sway treatment choices one way or another, but to get doctors to broach the topic and thus help patients better weigh their options. (AP Photo/David Gard)