Guest guest Posted January 15, 2011 Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 Januaruy 11, 2011 The future of cancer care is uncertain. Never before have we had so many drugs with which to treat a burgeoning population of cancer patients. Our improved understanding of the biologic heterogeneity of cancer, and the promise—sometimes specious—of pharmacogenomics to enable a personalized approach to diagnosis and treatment, are accompanied by public expectation of these improvements, but also a low tolerance for their soaring costs. With the aging of the population and the success of improved screening and diagnostics, the number of cancer patients is growing; with improved treatments, the population of survivors continues to grow as well. The number of providers to care for both, however, remains relatively stable. What then, is the future of this increasingly personalized, effective, labor-intensive, and costly cancer care for the growing population of cancer patients and survivors? Increasing Demand for Care An aging population, improved screening, and more effective therapies have resulted in a steadily increasing number of patients and cancer survivors. The incidence of newly diagnosed cases of cancer, although decreased slightly over the last decade, is now more than 1.5 million new cases per year.[1,2] During this same time period, more precipitously declining mortality rates, resulting from early detection and improved therapies, have left the number of patients dying of cancer at fewer than 600,000 per year. With time, these trends will significantly increase the overall number of cancer patients and survivors actively undergoing treatment or surveillance. http://www.cancernetwork.com/display/article/10165/1771342 ******************************* December 390, 2010 Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) found that patients over the past two years are increasingly asking treatment facilities for help with the cost of co-pays, prescription drug costs, and transportation. “If you speak to oncologists, three quarters of the doctors in community practices in 2010 had seen the direct impact of the recession,” said Lee Blansett, senior vice president of Oncology Market Access for Kantar Health, based in City, Calif. “Chief among those impacts was patients’ inability to pay for cancer treatments and, in some cases, an increasing number in whom treatment selection was based on the ability to pay.” Mr. Blansett added that data prior to the recession were already showing a trend toward increased number of uninsured and underinsured patients, and he suggested that this trend will continue even if the recession is officially declared to be over. TABLE 1 Sources of financial assistance: Nonprofit • American Cancer Society Health Insurance and Financial Assistance www.cancer.org/Treatment/FindingandPayingforTreatment/ManagingInsuranceIssues/ HealthInsuranceandFinancialAssistancefortheCancerPatient/index • CancerCare www.cancercarecopay.org/about.html • Chronic Disease Fund www.gooddaysfromcdf.org/patients/process • Cancer Fund of America www.cfoa.org • Cancer Support Community/The Wellness Community www.thewellnesscommunity.org/ • HealthWell Foundation www.healthwellfoundation.org/ • Patient Advocate Foundation www.patientadvocate.org • G. Komen for the Cure www.komen.org • Surgery on a Sunday www.surgeryonasunday.org • Life Beyond Cancer Foundation www.lifebeyondcancer.org FYI, Lottie Duthu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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