Patients with advanced cancer have the mistaken belief that chemotherapy can cure their illness according to a New England Journal of Medicine article published in October of 2012. This Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study showe that 69% of advanced lung cancer and 81% of advanced colorectal cancer did not understand that chemotherapy was not at all likely to cure their cancer. The five year survival rate for stage 4 cancers is 2.3%.
Conflicts of interest created by oncologists getting what amounts to a kickback from Big Pharma for prescribing their drugs is likely part of the reason why oncologists readily prescribe chemotherapy for their patients but not so much for themselves or their family.