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Originally published March 3, 2025
Last updated March 3, 2025
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Telling your doctor you want a second opinion isn’t always easy. Patients may worry about offending or jeopardizing their relationship with their doctor by consulting another provider.
But no one should be afraid to seek a second opinion, says Minh D. Nguyen, MD, a medical oncologist with the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC. In fact, the valuable information a second opinion yields often helps not just the patient but their physician as well.
There usually aren’t drawbacks to getting another physician’s input, Dr. Nguyen says.
First off, “Doctors are human, too,” he points out. Double-checking your physician’s diagnosis and treatment plan is never a bad idea, especially if a patient is facing a brand-new diagnoses they want confirmed, or if they are facing a life-threatening disease. In general, he says, “These patients are not afraid to ask for a second opinion because they want to be sure they’re making the right choices.”
Consulting another doctor is especially helpful if a disease or condition is rare, complex or lacks a long-established standard of care. A second physician may be able to suggest additional treatment options that haven’t yet been considered.
“If a patient has a rare type of tumor, or a rare leukemia or lymphoma, for which there isn’t a standard of care, getting a second physician’s insight can open other treatment pathways I hadn’t considered,” Dr. Nguyen continues. “We can evaluate and compare our recommendations to help the patient decide which approach they prefer. I can say, ‘These are the reasons I recommended this, but I can see why the other doctor recommended that.’”
When patients do come to him for a second opinion, he tries to evaluate each case with fresh eyes. “If it’s a new diagnosis, I tell the patient not to tell me what the other doctor said,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Let me look at your data and formulate my own opinions objectively. After that, you can tell me what the other doctor said, and we can compare notes.” But, he says, if a patient’s disease is very complex or advanced, then it helps to hear the other doctor’s history of diagnosis and treatment at the start before forming his recommendations.
In either case, he remains neutral when delivering his own recommendations. “Number one, I don’t want to say any bad or good things about the other doctor; I want to remain neutral,” he explains. “And number two, I don’t want the patient to feel like they didn’t get the right care.”
Another reason consulting another provider can help is that the provider might know of a clinical trial that could benefit the patient. “I would certainly encourage patients to see what other trials are out there,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Oftentimes, I’ll look for open trials for patients — either here at Keck Medicine or elsewhere. If I see a clinical trial somewhere else that looks promising, I’ll tell them, ‘Why don’t you get a second opinion with those guys?’”
Finally, another reason to get a second opinion is if current treatments aren’t helping. “Patients who have been diagnosed with a disease for a long time and whose disease is still progressing even though they have been through a lot of treatment” can request a second opinion to seek new ideas for treatment, Dr. Nguyen says.
Overall, having another physician evaluate a case anew can help all parties feel more confident in final diagnosis and treatment decisions.
Dr. Nguyen says he finds second opinions helpful because they can validate his original recommendations to a patient. “Personally, I welcome them because, the majority of the time, the second opinion will come back saying what I said,” he notes.
“A lot of the common tumors we treat like breast cancer and colon cancer — we see those cases all day long, and they have standard protocols and straightforward pathways already established nationwide that most doctors agree on,” he continues. “So, when another doctor provides their second opinion, it will reinforce my own recommendation to the patient, and it will give them more confidence in the treatment plan. It will allow them to be more at peace with the plans we’ve discussed because another physician has independently recommended the same thing.”
If both doctors’ treatment plans are valid and would be equally effective, it can be left to the patient to decide which they prefer. “If the patient decides to follow a different treatment recommended by another doctor, but it’s still an acceptable treatment pathway that I can provide, I don’t have anything against that,” Dr. Nguyen says. “I’m more than happy to administer that treatment.”
Despite the benefits of a second opinion, some doctors do get offended when their patients ask for one. “It happens,” Dr. Nguyen says. “I’ve had patients come to see me for a second opinion who have said, ‘My doctor wasn’t happy I’m getting a second opinion. They told me if I do so, don’t come back. If you walk out the door, keep walking.’”
For the most part, however, he believes most physicians do welcome patients getting second opinions. And if a patient wants one, he believes it’s in everyone’s best interest to be as helpful as possible.
Doctors should be supportive, especially if a second opinion would bring their patient peace of mind. In fact, Dr. Nguyen says, he offers to review lists of other physicians his patients are considering seeing and will provide feedback on who he thinks would or wouldn’t be the best fit. “If you’re going to take time to get a second opinion,” he says, “then get it from the best of the best.”
Most of the time, he adds, his patients will consult him when they’re thinking about getting a second opinion. “They’re very forthright with me,” he says. “They’re not ashamed about it or scared to ask. A lot of that has to do with the physician-patient relationship. If they’ve known me for a while, they’re comfortable bringing it up and asking.”
That’s the way it should be, he says. “The diseases we deal with are life-threatening diseases, and you want the patient to be at peace with what they are doing. I think all physicians should encourage second opinions when the patient asks for it. The more you can put them at peace, the better the treatment will go.”
If there is still time to seek a second opinion, physicians should support their patients’ wishes. There are a few instances, however, when Dr. Nguyen says he might push back if a patient wants to pursue additional consults.
One example is when a patient’s disease is aggressive and the patient needs to start medical treatment right away.
“I do welcome second opinions as long as there is time for it,” Dr. Nguyen explains. “If there are diseases that are very aggressive, moving at a fast pace and I think we they need to get on treatment right away, I’ll tell the patient, ‘I don’t know that you have time for a second opinion. You need to start treatment. You can still seek that second opinion but do it after you start treatment.”
“As long as there is time for getting second opinions, however, I encourage it,” he says. “I tell the patient we can start treatment in the next three or four weeks. There’s time. Go ahead, go over there and get an opinion, then come back and let me know what you find out.”
In addition, Dr. Nguyen says, he may voice his opinion if he doesn’t believe an alternative treatment will work.
Take holistic treatments, he says. “I tell the patient I don’t have data to support those holistic treatments. If they want to undergo those treatments in combination with the treatments I’m proposing, and as long as those holistic treatments aren’t damaging, I’d be okay with it — but I won’t provide those holistic treatments myself. The patient would have to go to a holistic doctor for that.”
The bottom line is that a good doctor will support their patients, Dr. Nguyen says. If you want a second opinion, do not worry about offending your current doctor. Second opinions are not only an accepted part of health care; they are the patient’s right.
If you need a second opinion, the cancer experts at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center can help. As leaders in cancer research, our renowned doctors and specialists use the latest cancer detection, prevention and treatment options to help you get the care you need each step of your cancer journey.
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