6 out of 10 patients said it was “somewhat likely” they would die because of treatment, and almost 30 percent said it was “extremely likely” they would die. However, 8 in 10 of the cancer doctors said that the scenario was very unlikely.
Another survey one month later revealed other misunderstandings. While 90 percent of patients believed it was either somewhat or very likely they would ultimately be cured, three-quarters of the doctors thought it was somewhat or very unlikely that a cure was in the offing.
The gap was especially wide between doctors and outpatients. Researchers found 44 percent of outpatients thought they were very likely to achieve a cure, but none of the doctors shared that view.
The five-year survival rate for people with AML is approximately 27 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. The findings were recently presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and other groups, in San Diego.
“There were several very important factors we were not able to capture in our