Got cancer? 10 secrets for better decisions
5. Focus on additional risk
When evaluating a proposed treatment, it's important to compare the risk of something happening if you get the treatment vs. the risk of that if you forgo the treatment. For example, say a doctor says the risk of experiencing a certain medical problem if you take a drug is 7 percent. If you didn't take the drug, is there a chance you'd still experience the problem?
Always ask what the additional or incremental risk of a treatment is. "You want to make sure the risk number you're being presented is the risk due to the treatment and not a risk you would face no matter what," Fagerlin says.
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