CANCER EXPERIENCE REGISTRY℠

If sharing your cancer journey could enhance the lives of others would you help? You can!

What is the Cancer Experience Registry℠?

It is a community of people touched by cancer. A primary focus is on collecting, analyzing and sharing information about the cancer experience including the social and emotional needs of the patient and their family throughout the cancer journey.

Why is it important?

There is a need to include social and emotional support as an integral part of comprehensive quality cancer care. This has been proven to improve quality of life and may also improve health outcomes of cancer survivors. The information collected from the registry will be used to inform the future of cancer care, develop innovative programs and offer services to more effectively address the emotional and social needs of people affected by cancer.

Who is eligible to participate?

Anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer at any time. Whether you have been recently diagnosed, are undergoing treatment or are years past treatment, you are eligible to participate. By joining you can make a difference in improving the quality of life and health outcomes of people touched by cancer.

How to participate?

If you have ever had cancer, please join now and share your experience with us. Also, if you know somebody who has been diagnosed with cancer at any point please encourage them to join. All personal information is protected.

Learn More about The Cancer Experience Registry

To view original, go to:

https://csc.cancerexperienceregistry.org/

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF TAI CHI

Cancer Support Community-Benjamin Center has a tai chi class that meets every Tuesday from 5 -6pm.  At no cost for those affected by cancer.  Just drop in or call 310-314-2555 for information.

May 2009, Harvard Medical School Article

This gentle form of exercise can prevent or ease many ills of aging and could be the perfect activity for the rest of your life.

Tai chi is often described as "meditation in motion," but it might well be called "medication in motion." There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren't in top shape or the best of health.

In this low-impact, slow-motion exercise, you go without pausing through a series of motions named for animal actions — for example, "white crane spreads its wings" — or martial arts moves, such as "box both ears." As you move, you breathe deeply and naturally, focusing your attention — as in some kinds of meditation — on your bodily sensations. Tai chi differs from other types of exercise in several respects. The movements are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or bent, and connective tissues are not stretched. Tai chi can be easily adapted for anyone, from the most fit to people confined to wheelchairs or recovering from surgery.

"A growing body of carefully conducted research is building a compelling case for tai chi as an adjunct to standard medical treatment for the prevention and rehabilitation of many conditions commonly associated with age," says Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Program at Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center. An adjunct therapy is one that's used together with primary medical treatments, either to address a disease itself or its primary symptoms, or, more generally, to improve a patient's functioning and quality of life.

Belief systems

You don't need to subscribe to or learn much about tai chi's roots in Chinese philosophy to enjoy its health benefits, but these concepts can help make sense of its approach:

•  Qi — an energy force thought to flow through the body; tai chi is said to unblock and encourage the proper flow of qi.
•  Yin and yang — opposing elements thought to make up the universe that need to be kept in harmony. Tai chi is said to promote this balance.

Tai chi in motion
A tai chi class might include these parts:

Warm-up. Easy motions, such as shoulder circles, turning the head from side to side, or rocking back and forth, help you to loosen your muscles and joints and focus on your breath and body.

Instruction and practice of tai chi forms. Short forms — forms are sets of movements — may include a dozen or fewer movements; long forms may include hundreds. Different styles require smaller or larger movements. A short form with smaller, slower movements is usually recommended at the beginning, especially if you're older or not in good condition.

Qigong (or chi kung). Translated as "breath work" or "energy work," this consists of a few minutes of gentle breathing sometimes combined with movement. The idea is to help relax the mind and mobilize the body's energy. Qigong may be practiced standing, sitting, or lying down.

Getting started

The benefits of tai chi are generally greatest if you begin before you develop a chronic illness or functional limitations. Tai chi is very safe, and no fancy equipment is needed, so it's easy to get started. Here's some advice for doing so:

Don't be intimidated by the language. Names like Yang, Wu, and Cheng are given to various branches of tai chi, in honor of people who devised the sets of movements called forms. Certain programs emphasize the martial arts aspect of tai chi rather than its potential for healing and stress reduction. In some forms, you learn long sequences of movements, while others involve shorter series and more focus on breathing and meditation. The name is less important than finding an approach that matches your interests and needs.

Check with your doctor. If you have a limiting musculoskeletal problem or medical condition — or if you take medications that can make you dizzy or lightheaded — check with your doctor before starting tai chi. Given its excellent safety record, chances are that you'll be encouraged to try it.

Consider observing and taking a class. Taking a class may be the best way to learn tai chi. Seeing a teacher in action, getting feedback, and experiencing the camaraderie of a group are all pluses. Most teachers will let you observe the class first to see if you feel comfortable with the approach and atmosphere. Instruction can be individualized. Ask about classes at your local Y, senior center, or community education center. The Arthritis Foundation (www.arthritis.org; 800-283-7800, toll-free) can tell you whether its tai chi program, a 12-movement, easy-to-learn sequence, is offered in your area.

If you'd rather learn at home, you can buy or rent videos geared to your interests and fitness needs (see "Selected resources"). Although there are some excellent tai chi books, it can be difficult to appreciate the flow of movements from still photos or illustrations.

Talk to the instructor. There's no standard training or licensing for tai chi instructors, so you'll need to rely on recommendations from friends or clinicians and, of course, your own judgment. Look for an experienced teacher who will accommodate individual health concerns or levels of coordination and fitness.

Dress comfortably. Choose loose-fitting clothes that don't restrict your range of motion. You can practice barefoot or in lightweight, comfortable, and flexible shoes. Tai chi shoes are available, but ones you find in your closet will probably work fine. You'll need shoes that won't slip and can provide enough support to help you balance, but have soles thin enough to allow you to feel the ground. Running shoes, designed to propel you forward, are usually unsuitable.

Gauge your progress. Most beginning programs and tai chi interventions tested in medical research last at least 12 weeks, with instruction once or twice a week and practice at home. By the end of that time, you should know whether you enjoy tai chi, and you may already notice positive physical and psychological changes.

No pain, big gains

Although tai chi is slow and gentle and doesn't leave you breathless, it addresses the key components of fitness — muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and, to a lesser degree, aerobic conditioning. Here's some of the evidence:

Muscle strength. In a 2006 study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Stanford University researchers reported benefits of tai chi in 39 women and men, average age 66, with below-average fitness and at least one cardiovascular risk factor. After taking 36 tai chi classes in 12 weeks, they showed improvement in both lower-body strength (measured by the number of times they could rise from a chair in 30 seconds) and upper-body strength (measured by their ability to do arm curls).

In a Japanese study using the same strength measures, 113 older adults were assigned to different 12-week exercise programs, including tai chi, brisk walking, and resistance training. People who did tai chi improved more than 30% in lower-body strength and 25% in arm strength — almost as much as those who participated in resistance training, and more than those assigned to brisk walking.

"Although you aren't working with weights or resistance bands, the unsupported arm exercise involved in tai chi strengthens your upper body," says internist Dr. Gloria Yeh, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. "Tai chi strengthens both the lower and upper extremities and also the core muscles of the back and abdomen."

Flexibility. Women in the 2006 Stanford study significantly boosted upper- and lower-body flexibility as well as strength.

Balance. Tai chi improves balance and, according to some studies, reduces falls. Proprioception — the ability to sense the position of one's body in space — declines with age. Tai chi helps train this sense, which is a function of sensory neurons in the inner ear and stretch receptors in the muscles and ligaments. Tai chi also improves muscle strength and flexibility, which makes it easier to recover from a stumble. Fear of falling can make you more likely to fall; some studies have found that tai chi training helps reduce that fear.

Aerobic conditioning. Depending on the speed and size of the movements, tai chi can provide some aerobic benefits. But in the Japanese study, only participants assigned to brisk walking gained much aerobic fitness. If your clinician advises a more intense cardio workout with a higher heart rate than tai chi can offer, you may need something more aerobic as well.

Selected resources

Tai Chi Health www.taichihealth.com
Tai Chi Productions www.taichiforhealth.com
Tree of Life Tai Chi Center www.treeoflifetaichi.com

Tai chi for medical conditions

When combined with standard treatment, tai chi appears to be helpful for several medical conditions. For example:

Arthritis. In a 40-person study at Tufts University, presented in October 2008 at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, an hour of tai chi twice a week for 12 weeks reduced pain and improved mood and physical functioning more than standard stretching exercises in people with severe knee osteoarthritis. According to a Korean study published in December 2008 in Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, eight weeks of tai chi classes followed by eight weeks of home practice significantly improved flexibility and slowed the disease process in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful and debilitating inflammatory form of arthritis that affects the spine.

Low bone density. A review of six controlled studies by Dr. Wayne and other Harvard researchers indicates that tai chi may be a safe and effective way to maintain bone density in postmenopausal women. A controlled study of tai chi in women with osteopenia (diminished bone density not as severe as osteoporosis) is under way at the Osher Research Center and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Breast cancer. Tai chi has shown potential for improving quality of life and functional capacity (the physical ability to carry out normal daily activities, such as work or exercise) in women suffering from breast cancer or the side effects of breast cancer treatment. For example, a 2008 study at the University of Rochester, published in Medicine and Sport Science, found that quality of life and functional capacity (including aerobic capacity, muscular strength, and flexibility) improved in women with breast cancer who did 12 weeks of tai chi, while declining in a control group that received only supportive therapy.

Heart disease. A 53-person study at National Taiwan University found that a year of tai chi significantly boosted exercise capacity, lowered blood pressure, and improved levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, and C-reactive protein in people at high risk for heart disease. The study, which was published in the September 2008 Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found no improvement in a control group that did not practice tai chi.

Heart failure.  In a 30-person pilot study at Harvard Medical School, 12 weeks of tai chi improved participants' ability to walk and quality of life. It also reduced blood levels of B-type natriuretic protein, an indicator of heart failure. A 150-patient controlled trial is under way.

Hypertension.  In a review of 26 studies in English or Chinese published in Preventive Cardiology (Spring 2008), Dr. Yeh reported that in 85% of trials, tai chi lowered blood pressure — with improvements ranging from 3 to 32 mm Hg in systolic pressure and from 2 to 18 mm Hg in diastolic pressure.

Parkinson's disease.  A 33-person pilot study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published in Gait and Posture (October 2008), found that people with mild to moderately severe Parkinson's disease showed improved balance, walking ability, and overall well-being after 20 tai chi sessions.

Sleep problems.  In a University of California, Los Angeles, study of 112 healthy older adults with moderate sleep complaints, 16 weeks of tai chi improved the quality and duration of sleep significantly more than standard sleep education. The study was published in the July 2008 issue of the journal Sleep.

Stroke.  In 136 patients who'd had a stroke at least six months earlier, 12 weeks of tai chi improved standing balance more than a general exercise program that entailed breathing, stretching, and mobilizing muscles and joints involved in sitting and walking. Findings were published in the January 2009 issue of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.

Check out original article at http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2009/May/The-health-benefits-of-tai-chi

 

 

US CANCER CARE IN CRISIS, EXPERTS SAY

(Photo) Gerry Broome / AP

 

MAGGIE FOX, NBC NEWS

September 10, 2013, 12:38 PM ET

 

A nurse prepares to administer chemotherapy treatment at Duke Cancer Center in Durham, N.C.

Cancer may be the most feared diagnosis, but Americans are getting disorganized care and they’re often not even getting treatment based on the best scientific evidence, a panel of experts reports.
It’s often too expensive, and the most privileged are getting far better care than people with lower income, minorities, people who live away from big cities and the elderly. And most cancer patients who are doomed to die still wrongly believe they might be cured.

And as the baby boomer generation ages, the U.S. is going to be hit with a tsunami of new cancer cases. It’s time to get organized, the Institute of Medicine committee says.

“As a nation we need to chart a new course for cancer care,” says Dr. Patricia Ganz, chair of the committee that wrote the report and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine and School of Public Health. “We need to make the healthcare system better.”
The Internet brings a unique opportunity to change this, with ways to make sure doctors follow the best protocols for treating patients, and making sure patients understand what they need and what is possible, the committee says.

Cancer is the No. 2 cause of death in the United States after heart disease, killing more than 500,000 Americans every year.

Because cancer becomes more likely as people get older, the numbers will go up exponentially. By 2030, the report projects, cancer rates will go up 45 percent, to 2.6 million cases a year.
Cancer is common, so a range of doctors and other specialists treat it. Often the care is very good, but too often it isn’t.
“One would expect an entire system to snap into place that would ensure that this patient receives all the treatments he or she needs,” Dr. Neil Wenger of UCLA, one of the committee members, says in a video released with the report. 

“That is not the way that this system works. We have the most highly trained oncologists but because we don’t have coordination among all clinicians, this care doesn’t serve patients well. Sometimes it even harms patients.”

So someone with colon cancer who goes to his community hospital maybe treated by a surgeon who doesn’t know to take out certain lymph glands for testing to see if the cancer has spread, says Ganz. “They may do too many tests,” she told NBC News.

Often doctors order too many CT scans or unnecessary MRIs, Ganz said. “These kinds of variations lead to potential risk or harm to the patient,” she said. “Obviously if you don’t have good access, you won’t get good care.” Plus it can be costly -- and patients often must pay a large chunk of this pricey and unnecessary care.

But patients shouldn’t have to rely on being able to get to big, famous cancer centers like MD Anderson in Houston, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York or Fred Hutchison Cancer Center in Seattle, says Ganz.

“The truth is, not everybody can travel,” says Dr. Clifford Hudis, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, who was not on the panel. “We have a golden opportunity now that we are in the age of bioinformatics.” Electronic communications can help doctors connect to one another and share expertise, and it needs to happen more often, Hudis and the panel agree.

“Why shouldn’t any doctor who is using a computer and electronic records ultimately be able to gain from the experience of everyone? Then it won’t matter quite so much if you wander into a one-person office in a rural center," Hudis says.

Patients also need to get more informed, and they can’t be left to the mercy of misinformation on the Internet, adds Ganz. “We do recommend there be good quality information available in both written and social media,” she said. “What is out there and what is on blogs can be very distressing.”
The report points out that Americans often don’t understand a cancer diagnosis. Up to 80 percent given a diagnosis of incurable cancer don’t fully get it -- they think they can still be cured, the panel points out.

“Part of this has to do with human nature and the belief that you will be the exception,” Hudis says. But many oncologists are also reluctant to deliver the bad news that a patient will never be cured.
Americans often emphasize fighting cancer, characterizing patients as courageous survivors who either beat the odds, or went down after a good fight. But evidence suggests that so-called palliative care -- designed to ease pain and other symptoms -- not only makes patients more comfortable, but can help them live longer than intense chemotherapy.

And people shouldn’t die of cancer in an intensive care unit, the report says -- even though this is still happening far too often. Quality hospice care provides a better alternative.

On the other side, people often panic when they get a cancer diagnosis and may rush into treatment, says Ganz. “We don’t want to frighten patients,” she says. “I think the quality of care in many places around the country is really high and of a high standard. Patients need to understand that once they are told they have cancer, it is rarely an emergency."

With the exception of an unusual brain tumor or some forms of leukemia, there is usually not a hurry. “Most of the time you can make up your mind over several weeks,” Ganz says.

“It will take training of professionals and it will take big changes at a policy level including how care is reimbursed," says Betty Ferrell, an oncology nurse researcher at the City of Hope cancer center in California who was on the IOM panel. “But everything that we are advocating for is ultimately extremely possible.”

To see original post, go to http://www.nbcnews.com/health/us-cancer-care-crisis-experts-say-8C11121986

Ipilimumab Conveys Long-Term Survival Benefit in Pooled Analysis of Metastatic Melanoma Patients

"The ASCO Post" printed this article on melanoma, November 15, 2013, Volume 4, Issue 18

By Caroline Helwick
http://www.ascopost.com/issues/november-15,-2013/ipilimumab-conveys-long-term-survival-in-pooled-analysis-of-metastatic-melanoma-patients.aspx

The Intriguing Health Benefits of Qigong

By Laura Johannes from the Wall Street Journal

The Claim: Qigong, a Chinese health practice based on gentle movements, meditation and breathing, has wide-ranging benefits, including improving balance, lowering blood pressure and even easing depression.

The Verdict: Increasingly popular in the U.S., qigong (pronounced chee-gong) has been found in recent studies to improve quality of life in cancer patients and fight depression. Other studies have found improvements in balance and blood pressure. But so far, there aren't enough large, well-designed studies to constitute solid proof of any benefits, scientists say.

Student Krupa Patel warms up during class. Dominick Reuter for The Wall Street Journal

Qigong, with its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, is a close cousin to the better-known tai chi. Unlike that practice, qigong isn't based in martial arts. Instead, it uses a variety of gentle movements, says Stanwood Chang, who teaches qigong classes at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Because its motions are simple and repetitive, qigong is more accessible to many people than tai chi, which has long sequences that need to be memorized, Mr. Chang adds.

Traditionally, qigong is described as a practice that cultivates "qi," or life energy. Qi can't be measured objectively, says Shin Lin, a professor of cell biology at the University of California, Irvine. But his studies of qigong and tai chi practitioners have found a boost in both alpha brain waves, suggesting relaxation, and beta waves, indicating strong focus. "It has the dual benefit of relaxing you, but also sharpening your mind," says Dr. Lin.

Some studies have found improvement in balance from qigong. At least one cites the fact that participants are taught to take a wider, more stable stance when standing. 

Natural Standard Research Collaboration, a Cambridge, Mass., scientist group that evaluates natural therapies, gives qigong a grade of "B," for hypertension, concluding that there is "good evidence" to support its use along with standard medications to treat the condition.

Earlier this year, a three-month, 14-person study of depressed Chinese-Americans, who were offered one-hour qigong classes twice a week and encouraged to practice at home, found that 60% of those who took at least 15 classes saw a significant improvement in depression based on a standard rating scale. "One theory is that qigong helps people to relax and combat stress," which tends to aggravate depression, says study co-author Albert Yeung, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge.
The study was too small to be conclusive, adds Dr. Yeung, a senior consultant at the Benson-Henry Institute. But he's excited enough about the potential that he already recommends qigong to patients with mild and moderate depression, and in combination with medication to patients with severe depression.

For cancer patients, qigong can be done sitting and lying down if a person has physical constraints or is in pain, says Yang Yang, a kinesiologist and researcher, who teaches qigong at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. 

In a study of 96 women getting radiation therapy for breast cancer, published earlier this year, a team of Chinese scientists and researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston found reduced depression in women who took five weekly classes of qigong, compared with a control group that didn't take the classes. Among those depressed at the start of the trial, fatigue was lessened and overall quality of life improved.

Many people take qigong group classes, which typically cost $10 to $20 an hour, or practice at home after learning the exercises in a class or from a qigong DVD or online video. 

Read the original article in the Wall Street Journal here.

Living With Cancer: Brains on Chemo

By SUSAN GUBAR from The New York Times Well Blog:

 

Over the past few months, a number of headlines in The New York Times have stumped me.

Tomatoes Have Devastated American Indian Families in Oklahoma
U.S. Workers Are Grounded by Deep Cats
Wall Saint Banks Woo Children of Chinese Leaders

Of course, those weren’t actually the headlines The Times had written. But why am I staring at the word “Tornadoes” and reading “Tomatoes”? Looking at “Cuts” and reading “Cats”? Interpreting the abbreviation “Wall St.” as “Wall Saint”? After three cycles (or 18 sessions) of chemotherapy, I seem to be dealing with a weird sort of dyslexia. 

Chemo brain is a phenomenon that patients have described for quite some time as a thick mental fog resulting from chemotherapy. For quite some time, too, physicians discounted chemo brain as a figment of patients’ imaginations. Now, however, the American Cancer Society terms it “a mild cognitive impairment” that for most people only lasts a short time.

Doctors were skeptical about chemo brain because many factors can induce mental glitches. Forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, memory blanks, inattention, word loss, retention problems and disorganization can result from aging, sleeplessness, depression, fatigue, anxiety, low blood counts, the onset of menopause and other medications. 

Isn’t it curious, though, that chemotherapy often accelerates aging, causes sleeplessness and depression, promotes fatigue and anxiety, lowers blood counts, causes the onset of menopause and requires powerful secondary medications to deal with its side effects? We seem to be caught in a dupe — oops, I mean a loop.
P.C.C.I., or post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, after being attributed to patients’ hang-ups, finally became the subject of serious research while I was undergoing treatment. Such investigations therefore could not yield pragmatic solutions quick enough to help me locate my car in the parking lot or my keys maybe inside it.

While I was going through chemotherapy, the phrase “mild cognitive impairment” did not pertain to the stupefaction I experienced at forgetting a close friend’s name. I found myself bewildered about what task had led me to my university office and then lost on the way home. I had to enact a convoluted guessing game to get my husband to provide the word “egg.” On more than one occasion, it became apparent that one of my daughters was confiding in me, but about what? 

From that time on, I got hooked on two aids many people use to survive with a minimum of mortification. First, on my computer and iPhone, I have an elaborate calendar listing not only events that must be attended or tasks that must be accomplished but even menus and their ingredients. I study it hourly so I will remember what needs to be performed, purchased or produced — when, and for or with whom. 

Second, I always have a small pad in my purse, another by the side of my bed, another next to my computer, another in the kitchen. Often I scribble suggestions or snippets of conversation so — if they are decipherable — I can mull them over later and learn to remember the information they convey in a new, if more laborious, manner. 

Because of the cumulative effect of chemicals, sometimes those aids do not help. A few years ago, I suffered the bane of chemo brain most intensely toward the end of six infusions of Taxol and Carboplatin, when a fuzzy hesitancy spiraled into blank enervation. I could not think to think, stand to stand, or feel to feel. Vacancy morphed me into a zombie or humanoid. I felt somehow exiled from myself, a mishap never mentioned in the cheerful brochures on chemotherapy displayed in oncology waiting rooms. 

A friend of mine now on the same drug combination weeps while considering suicide, although she is taking an antidepressant. “It’s the chemicals, stupid,” she has to keep reminding herself.

Even when Carboplatin alone was later prescribed for me, I had trouble reading. I tried, but when I turned the page I became convinced that either there was a page missing or I had skipped a page. My eyes would roll over a paragraph without being able to snag on a sentence … sort of a hindrance for an English teacher.
These days, while I take a targeted drug, the aftereffect of chemo brain persist in milder forms, making my reading quite stimulating — but for the wrong reasons. As I study a recipe calling for 1 ¼ teaspoons of salt, I wonder how to measure 11 fourths. I am regularly surprised by discussions of kidney stores (instead of kidney stones), dejection tissues (instead of digestion issues), the sex dive (sex drive) and constipations after surgery (rather than complications after surgery). 

As a self-identified “chemosabe” in my support group assures me, at least the recognition and naming of chemo brain prove we are not (completely) crazy.

Check out the original post from by Susan Gubar from The New York Times Well Blog.

The Cancer Insurance Checklist: Your Guide to Shopping for Insurance on the Marketplace/Exchange

As implementation of the health reform law (the Affordable Care Act) continues, individuals that do not have insurance through an employer or government plan like Medicare or Medicaid will be required to purchase insurance on state-based Health Insurance Marketplaces, or Exchanges.   Open enrollment begins October 1st for coverage that will begin as early as January 1, 2014.

Cancer Support Community has participated in a partnership of 19 cancer and advocacy organizations to develop the Cancer Insurance Checklist.
 
CancerInsuranceChecklist.org was designed to provide guidance on the issues that you — as a person with cancer, a history of cancer, or a high risk for cancer —should consider when shopping for insurance.

Specifically, the Checklist arms you with the right questions to ask to be sure you can
evaluate and compare plans’ coverage for cancer-related services and the costs associated with that coverage.  Although you may not need all of the treatments in the Checklist, and there may be other treatments, costs or aspects of your care that you need to consider, the
Checklist is a useful guide to help you find a plan that will meet your needs.

WHEN TO USE THE CHECKLIST:

• If you will be purchasing insurance on your state’s Health Insurance Marketplace/Exchange
• If you have cancer, a history of cancer, or are at risk for cancer 
• When evaluating insurance plans
• When discussing your insurance needs with your Navigator or Marketplace/Exchange representative
• When discussing your cancer care needs with your health care provider

To use the Checklist, simply fill in the 3 worksheets for each insurance plan you are considering. By doing so, you will be able to tell which insurance plan best fits your needs and your budget.

CancerInsuranceChecklist.org also provides helpful links to other resources related to cancer and insurance.

We urge you to use and share this helpful new tool with anyone who may need it.  And if you need any assistance with cancer related issues, please call CSC’s Helpline at 1-888-793-9355.

Reposted from CSC's Headquarters' blog.