If you had cancer, what sources would you use to make an informed decision -friends,teachers, clinicians,?

I believe you could make an informed decision about different stages of your treatment based on just some simple research.  Most physicians keep teaching materials in their offices that they hand out to patients.  The general routine is that you would read the material and note things that don't seem clear to you.  When next you see the doctor you would bring those questions to him or his assistant.

It would also be reasonable to look on the internet for information.  The caution I'd give there would be to limit your research to established medical journals and the like.  I guess we all know there are some pretty sensationalized articles on just about any illness you can imagine.  It would be a good idea to stay away from those.

One other easily accessible and really great resource is the American Cancer Society. As a nurse, I turned to them so many times.  And whenever I called them about a patient's needs the answer was always "yes".  Compared to many of the organizations that assist patients and families, ACS is head and shoulders above the others.

First of all, if your not sure about what a Dr tells you. you don't need an informed decision.  You get another opinion.  Friends, teachers, clinician, will all tell you something different, thereby confusing you more.  So if you're diagnosed with cancer, the first thing you should do is get all the information you can on it, how it should be treated and go outside of the box as some would say and see another Dr completely.  Don't tell him what the other Dr said,  Present your symptoms and see if he comes up with the same diagnoses,  Now you can begin to make and informed decision.  It's the best, most reliable tool you have plus the internet.  Long ago we used to say the library, now it's the internet./  You can even get information about the doctor who is treating you.  It's all there right at your finger tips.  No one has to be left in the dark anymore.  Good Luck

Well, if you dont understand the question, then you need to break it down.....   A source is a place of information.  An informed decision is a choice made after getting all the available information about each possible choice, then choosing based on that learned information.  The list of friends, teachers and clinicians are simply examples of places that people commonly get  information from.  

So, the question is asking what places of information do cancer patients go to in order to make a choice based on learning information about the choices.

Personally, I used my doctors diagnosis, what other doctors said, what nurses said, and I tried to read as much factual information as I could about my choices - including some very hard to understand journal articles.