HJBR-2020-jul-aug

40 JUL / AUG 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE COLUMN ONCOLOGY In recent years, extraordinary progress has been made to understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer. These improvements are made evident in a recent report from the American Cancer Society stating that in the United States, the cancer death rate has dropped 2.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, the largest single-year drop ever recorded. Louisiana rates have dropped as well by 3.2 percent and 4.5 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Barriers to completing advance directives cited in- THE VERY BEST CARE INCLUDES ADVANCE CARE PLANNING clude lack of time to engage in these important dis- cussions, fear of psychological harm to the patient in discussing prognosis, lack of communication skills, and systemic barriers. In spite of these real and perceived challenges, the importance of having an advance care plan outweighs the obstacles. It has been well described that when presented with the choice, most Americans prefer to die in their homes without enduring intensive treatments at the end of life, and yet this is not the reality for most patients.