A common theme among ethical issues in oncology: the need to individualize advanced cancer care.

Clinical oncologists are trained to evaluate a patient’s condition and assist the patient in choosing between available, ideally evidence-based, options to maximize quality of life and overall health. However, many situations arise that require clinicians to confront choices related to communication, resource utilization, goals of care, and other factors beyond clinical management alone. Medical ethics is concerned with evaluating the right path forward in such situations, by identifying the principles at stake, evaluating relative obligations of the clinician towards potentially competing outcomes or interests, and providing the moral justification for choosing one path or the other.