4 Important Steps to Take After a Cancer Diagnosis

Each year, more than 1.7 million people in the United States hear three dreaded words: You have cancer. As common as cancer is, no one expects cancer to happen to them. We understand, as patients and as caregivers, how frightening a cancer diagnosis can be: how it can upend your life, leaving you feeling like you’re barely treading water. And we know that making tough decisions when your life depends on it is not easy. From our research at Harvard Business School of how people navigate their cancer treatment (and what they wish they had known sooner), we have developed four steps that all people with cancer can take to give them the best chance at beating the disease. Build the right team The single most important thing you can do is to see an oncologist who specializes in your particular type of cancer and has experience treating a lot of other patients like you. That’s because when it comes to treating cancer, expertise can mean the difference between life and death. Patients with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, who were treated at hospitals that saw a large number of myeloma patients were less likely to die than patients who were treated elsewhere, research has found. You’re most likely to find an expert like this at any of the 70 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers throughout the United States, which are recognized for their excellent care and research contributions. If you are not able to go an NCI-desig...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Cancer Source Type: news