How will I know if I should stop treatment?
This is a very personal decision that you will have to make. You will want to consider the feelings of your closest family, but ultimately you have to decide.
Most people think about their quality of life. If you are extremely sick, weak, and in pain during treatment or despite treatment, and you are not feeling well enough to enjoy seeing your family or friends, that might be when you start to think about stopping treatment.
When you got your diagnosis, at some point you may have thought that you wanted to live long enough to see certain people, or certain events, like the upcoming birth of a grandchild, or a wedding or graduation. If you have done the things you wanted to do, and your quality of life is not good, that is another time you might think of stopping treatment.
If your cancer has not responded, or it has recurred, and the treatment took a toll on you that you don’t want to repeat, that might be a time you want to think about not starting a new round of chemotherapy.
Deciding to stop treatment aimed at stopping the cancer does not mean you stop supportive care. You can still get pain medicine and treatments, oxygen or other help breathing – anything you need that can make you feel more comfortable should be continued.