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Most adults will share the treatment decision with a partner or spouse, but parents, friends, and children are other key influences. Following are several tips to consider when selecting the best treatment option:

• Obtain multiple references from a primary care physician, allowing patients to research and find the physician with whom they feel most comfortable.
• Consider the level of treatment available: Will the patient have access to the latest tested treatments, as well as the most innovative techniques through clinical trials?
• Location and ease of access: Will treatment be available close to home, and can all activities be completed in one complex, or will the patient have to travel to multiple locations?
• Quality of nurses and staff: Will care be intimate and personalized or cold and institutionalized?
• Consider whether the physician and treatment center are covered by the patient’s insurance plan.

Networks like Texas Oncology ensure that cancer patients obtain high quality treatment from leading physicians right in the comfort of their own communities. Our mission is to provide quality cancer care close to home, making treatment selection easier for patients by providing leading-edge cancer treatment in previously underserved communities.

Sources: American Cancer Society, Texas Cancer Council, and Texas Cancer Registry.
Updated 03/26/08