Quality Cancer Care

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Our mission is to advocate for quality cancer care for all people touched by cancer, but what exactly is “quality cancer care,” and why is it essential for patients and the health care system? The National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) and others have worked to define quality cancer care. Cancer Nation has represented patient perspectives in these efforts and played a leadership role in building the evidence base for quality cancer care.

Cancer Nation believes that cancer patients should have access to:

Care that adheres to evidence-based guidelines;
Comprehensive cancer care that assures treatment of the symptoms and side effects of cancer and cancer treatment;
Coordinated care with strong communication among all providers and the patient;
A written care plan detailing all elements of cancer care;
Care in a clinical trial, if it represents a potential treatment option;
Shared decision-making, including honest discussion about prognosis, the intent of therapy and the patient’s values and preferences regarding care;
Support for psychosocial needs;
Palliative care throughout the course of treatment, from diagnosis through end of life;
End-of-life care, including but not limited to hospice care;
Post-treatment survivorship care, including a survivorship care plan with a treatment summary and personalized recommendations for monitoring and follow-up care.
Robust health information systems that support and improve all other aspects of quality cancer care.

Ensuring quality cancer care is complex, and there are many areas for improvement and policy action. An important gap is in treatment decision-making and coordination of the multiple facets of cancer care. To address this gap, Cancer Nation advocates to ensure that every cancer patient has access to cancer care planning and coordination. These services provide cancer patients information to make informed decisions about treatments, encourage collaboration among the multi-disciplinary cancer care providers, and facilitate transitions from active treatment to survivorship.

Health Care Roundup: Cokie Roberts; Survivorship in the News; Junk Insurance Doesn’t Cover the Bills; Seeking Help and Encouragement; More

September 20, 2019

Tennessee became the first state in the country to release a plan proposing to block grant its Medicaid program. Currently, the federal government pays each state “a certain percentage of the cost of care for anyone eligible for health coverage.” If changed to a block grant program, the federal government would “instead pay a state a lump sum each year while freeing it from many of Medicaid’s rules, including who must be allowed into [...]

Remembering Cokie Roberts, a Tireless Advocate for Cancer Survivors

September 18, 2019

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship mourns the loss of Cokie Roberts, who died yesterday from complications of breast cancer. Mrs. Roberts was a generous supporter of NCCS both before and after her own seventeen-year cancer experience. In 1998, she co-hosted NCCS’s THE MARCH...Coming Together to Conquer Cancer, in honor of her ABC News colleague Sam Donaldson, a then three-year survivor of melanoma, and her sister, [...]

NCCS Survivorship Survey: Cancer Survivors Share Their Top Concerns

September 15, 2019

As part of its Elevating Survivorship initiative, NCCS fielded an online survey to understand cancer survivorship experiences and needs across a range of cancer patients. NCCS and our partner patient advocacy organizations promoted the survey to our constituents, and 1,380 cancer survivors responded. Some of the key findings include [...]

Health Care Roundup: What President Trump’s Health Care Plan Might Include; Recurrence Anxiety; Are There Too Many NCI Cancer Centers?; More

September 6, 2019

In August, we noted that President Trump and other members of his administration mentioned that they intend to unveil a substantial health care plan later this month. As we await the details of that plan, we wanted to share this Kaiser Health News article that examines what such a plan may, or may not, include. Congress returns to Washington next week, after the August recess. We will monitor and report on Congressional action on policy [...]

How the Patient Perspective Improved My Cancer Research and Changed My Career Path

August 20, 2019

The first time I heard the words “you have cancer,” I was sitting in the doctor’s office with my best friend Katie. We were both 28 years old. Katie had a lump removed from her breast the Monday before Thanksgiving and I was home in New Jersey a few days before the holiday to hang out with her post surgery. We were supposed to go to DSW that Wednesday morning when she got a call that her doctor wanted to see her that day. I collapsed on the floor [...]

Health Care Roundup: Medicare Payments for CAR-T; Cancer Screenings in Older Adults; Cancer and At-Home DNA Tests; End of Life Care; More

August 16, 2019

CAR-T therapies, a cutting-edge type of immunotherapy, are seen by many as the next generation for cancer treatments. Of course, they are expensive and complicated to administer. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced long-awaited policies regarding payment for these treatments. CMS stated, “Medicare will pay for CAR-T therapies so long as they’re administered in health care facilities that follow the [...]

NCCS Announces 2019 Stovall Award Honorees, Dr. Harmar Brereton and Dana Dornsife

August 7, 2019

(NCCS) is pleased to announce that the 2019 winners of the Ellen L. Stovall Award for Innovation in Patient-Centered Cancer Care are Harmar Brereton, MD, founder of the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute, and Dana Dornsife, founder and board chair of the Lazarex Cancer Foundation. Now in its fourth year, the cancer community’s embrace of the award named after longtime NCCS CEO Ellen Stovall continues to be a testament to her lasting [...]

Health Care Roundup: Cancer Care Planning Bill Introduced; Drug Pricing Measures Advance; Rural Hospitals Struggling in States that Did Not Expand Medicaid; More

August 2, 2019

On July 23, the Cancer Care Planning and Communications Act (CCPCA), H.R. 3835, was reintroduced in the House of Representatives. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), co-chairs of the Congressional Cancer Survivors Caucus. The CCPCA is NCCS’ top legislative priority as it would increase access to comprehensive cancer care planning for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. If implemented in Medicare [...]

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