Ethical challenges: Oncologists' role in immigrant health care

As the landscape of health care and immigration policies evolves, oncologists may be increasingly faced with challenges regarding care for patients who are undocumented immigrants. Oncologists will need to stay abreast of changes in federal and state legal statutes as well as medical ethics guidelines. Discussion among practitioners, patients, and resource providers will be necessary to determine appropriate and feasible cancer treatment options. There is no doubt that finding practical solutions that comply with legal regulations and economic constraints is a difficult task, one that oncologists continue to face when determining how to provide care for each patient. At its core, this issue creates tension between what many oncologists wish they could do to help patients with cancer, and what they can do on the basis of legal or economic constraints. As oncologists, we can add our collective voice to those calling for broad societal changes that would allow us to focus on treatment of cancer in all patients.