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.

What Caught Our Eye: ACA Support at All-Time High, Kasich: ACA Repeal is ‘Very Bad Idea,’ Cancer’s Financial Burden, and Your Cancer Genome

February 24, 2017

What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series. Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he won't "sit silent" and watch the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion get "ripped out" as Republicans work to repeal the law. | High-risk pools are at the center of most of the Republican plans to replace the ACA.

What Caught Our Eye: GOP ACA Talking Points Analysis, Right to Try Op-Ed, “Worry, Scan, Treat, Repeat”

February 17, 2017

Kaiser Health News’ Julie Rovner analyzes key Republican talking points on the ACA. One concern consumers have is high out-of-pocket costs. But, Rovner writes, “Republicans’ most popular proposals for replacing current individual insurance plans — cutting back on required benefits and giving more people access to tax-preferred health savings accounts — would likely increase [...]

ACA Update | February 17, 2017: GOP Outlines Replacement, Congress Goes Home for District Work Period

February 17, 2017

On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced that Republicans plan to introduce repeal and replace legislation the week of February 27. This followed a Republican caucus meeting where the elements of the legislation were outlined. The Hill summarized the plan saying, “the GOP bill will include tax credits, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, money for [...]

Mommy, Where’s Your Hair? (And Other Questions I Faced as a Parent with Cancer)

February 16, 2017

It’s one thing to have cancer, and quite another to have children witness it. At age 37, I was diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer; I had a large tumor in my left breast, and the cancer had spread to lymph nodes and a rib. And I had a 14-month-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Parenting with cancer is sadly not an uncommon phenomenon; [...]

ACA Update | February 13, 2017: More of the Same from Congressional Republicans

February 13, 2017

The Brookings Institute released a report entitled, “Five-State Study of ACA Marketplace Competition.” The study authors conducted on-the-ground interviews and research in five states, California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas, to see what is and what isn’t working. Our take away is this: of course the ACA is not perfect. But in the states that fully embraced and implemented the law, [...]

What Caught Our Eye: ACA Analysis/Debate, Doc/Patient Communication, Universal Cancer Care, Financial Toxicity, Palliative Care Pain Studies

February 10, 2017

As the repeal and replace debate continues in Washington, the Brookings Institution spearheaded a study to look at what is and isn’t working with the Affordable Care Act. Their look at five states who implemented the ACA in various ways is informative to help inform where we go from here.

What Caught Our Eye: ACA Uncertainty, Coping Post-Treatment, Biden’s New Research Charity, Survivorship Care Plans

February 3, 2017

A new study by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only 16% of Americans feel the ACA should be repealed immediately. | Last weekend, Republican members of Congress gathered in Philadelphia, PA for a party retreat to address some of the most pressing topics. However, one topic remains without consensus is how they will approach the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act.

ACA Update | February 3, 2017: Inadequate Replacement Plans

February 3, 2017

There remains no consensus among Republicans around a replacement plan for the ACA. In fact, more replacement proposals were presented, and after NCCS analyzed these proposals, we found that they do not come close to the level of protections the ACA provides currently and are therefore not adequate for cancer survivors.

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