Modern cancer medicines are remarkable. But their promise depends on one thing we talk about far too little: whether the patient can actually stay on them.
The number that should stop us in our tracks
In practice, more than half of patients treated with modern anticancer drugs experience a dose delay, and roughly one in three need a dose reduction. Frequently the reason is not the tumour — it is a side effect.
Every unplanned reduction or interruption is a small compromise to the treatment plan. Enough of them, and a therapy that could have worked never gets a fair chance.
Why prevention beats reaction
Too often side effects are treated as something to react to once they arrive. By then the options narrow, the patient is already suffering, and the dose is the first thing to give way.
The alternative is to anticipate: to know which reactions a given therapy tends to cause, to prepare the patient before treatment starts, and to intervene at the earliest sign. Small, low-cost actions — taken early — keep patients on track.
A different starting question
Instead of asking ‘how do we reduce the dose?’, the better question is ‘how do we control this side effect so we don’t have to?’ That shift changes everything about how a care team plans treatment.
It is the question at the heart of my work — and of the TARGET System, a six-step method for bringing adverse events under control.