Blog

Norman Ng: Chemotherapy is Not the End Point, but Another Possibility – How to Put Cancer Treatment Options in Perspective

Norman Ng/LinkedIn

May 28, 2025, 10:47

Norman Ng: Chemotherapy is Not the End Point, but Another Possibility – How to Put Cancer Treatment Options in Perspective

Norman Ng, Director of Patient Advocacy and Public Affairs at Healthcare Thinkers, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Chemotherapy is not the end point, but another possibility – how to put cancer treatment options in perspective

The woman has ovarian cancer and is currently being treated by an oncologist. However, last week she looked a little melancholy, so I asked her why. She said she was frustrated when her oncologist told her that targeted therapy was not working well and that she needed to switch to chemotherapy.

When many patients hear “chemotherapy”, they associate it with toxicity, hair loss, and all sorts of horrific side effects, and that horrific image comes to mind. How can we help patients adjust their mindset and reduce their fear of chemotherapy?

First, it is important to avoid pitting targeted therapy with chemotherapy in a simple opposition.

Some people mistakenly believe that targeted therapy is good and chemotherapy is bad, which is a misconception. As oncologists, we want to give hope to our patients, but it has to be real hope, not false expectations. Therefore, we need to clarify these misconceptions.

In fact, chemotherapy may be more effective than targeted therapy in some diseases, and there are no suitable targeted treatments for some diseases.

This does not mean that chemotherapy is necessarily worse than targeted therapy, and in some cases, the two treatments may need to be used together, or in a different order. When targeted therapy is not effective, patients may need to change their treatment regimens, and sometimes chemotherapy can be followed by other treatments. Therefore, patients need to have hope, and that hope must be based on reality.

In addition, many people have misconceptions about chemotherapy and believe that it only has negative effects.

Today, many patients ask whether immunotherapy can be used, but the decision to use immunotherapy depends on the type and stage of the disease. Some patients still need surgery, and not all cancers can be resolved with immunotherapy. Therefore, proper expectation management is crucial, as some patients are overly optimistic about the effects of new treatment modalities.”

Proceed to the video attached to the post.

Why Does Chemotherapy Cause Hair Loss?