Cancer patients ‘willing to accept treatment risks for greater rewards’

Cancer patients are willing to take risks on lesser-proven treatments in the hope of extracting greater long-term benefits, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) have surveyed 150 cancer patients, finding that the overwhelming majority would chose riskier treatment options that offer the possibility of longer survival over safe but limited therapies.

Of those polled, 77 percent said they would rather gamble on a drug that offered a 50/50 chance of providing three additional years of survival or none at all, than choosing a safer treatment that provided no more than 18 months of extended life.

The results of the study show the importance of hope to cancer sufferers, while also suggesting an argument for defining the value of therapies from the patient's own viewpoint.

Darius Lakdawalla, director of research at the Schaeffer Center at USC, said: "Consumers tend to dislike risk …. But patients facing a fatal disease with relatively short remaining life expectancy may have less to lose and be more willing to swing for the fences."

This comes after a Cancer Research UK study last year showed that British people fear cancer above all other life-threatening conditions, including serious ailments like stroke, heart disease and Alzheimer's.