Stopping breast cancer treatment

You are always in control of your treatment decisions. When you have metastatic breast cancer, it is important to balance side effects with your lifestyle and daily activities.

It is possible to take a break from metastatic breast cancer treatment. Or you may want to limit or stop your treatment completely.

For example, you may reach a point where:

• the treatment no longer seems effective
• the side effects are affecting your ability to live your life well and with quality.

You may choose to focus instead on supportive care measures to help you live well. These are things that focus less on active treatment and more on improving your quality of life.

Stopping treatment is a big decision and your individual choice. It is important you feel you can talk to your medical oncologist and your family. It is also important to make this decision if or when it feels right for you.

Speak with your medical team about supportive care measures available.

To help you continue to live life fully, you and your family can access Palliative care for physical, emotional and spiritual support. Many people think palliative care is only 'end of life' care, but this is not correct. Palliative care services are also very effective in managing symptoms and side effects of cancer and its treatment.

Research has shown that meeting the palliative care team early actually helps people live longer.

When your oncologist suggests stopping treatment

Your medical oncologist may suggest stopping treatment if:

• they feel your cancer will not respond to more treatment
• they feel your wellbeing is suffering excessively from treatment
• they consider you are not well enough to receive further treatment.

This can be distressing to hear. You might be angry or feel the oncologist is ‘giving up’ on you. This is not the case. Your treating team want what is best for you and they need to make sure they are not doing more harm than good.

It is important that you take time to consider and reflect. Ask for advice from other trusted healthcare professionals like your GP, oncology nurse, counsellor or palliative care physician. You should also lean on the people in your life who you trust.

You need to feel that the decisions made are the right ones for you after taking time to reflect on the advice you have been given.