Navigators are vital in communicating realistic expectations to patients, and helping them to transition from one phase of hope to the next, especially when the treatment goes from curative to palliative.
For patients who had an early diagnosis of cancer and it has now reappeared in the form of metastatic disease, the patient expects the oncologist to go through a myriad of treatments with the hope of obliterating the cancer once again. When the oncologist says that this time the treatments are palliative and not curative, the patient will likely turn to you, their navigator and advocate, to try to “persuade” the oncologist to be more aggressive with the treatment recommendations. This is where the conversation gets tough.
