Inspirational Stories of Metastatic Cancer Patients Leading Long and Active Lives

July 23, 2010

A recent article in Cure Magazine highlights how some people with metastatic cancer have benefited by “hitchhiking,” meaning when one treatment stops working, they can move on to the next.

When Suzanne Lindley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and informed she had six months to live, she and her family moved to the country, where she’d always dreamed of living.  Twelve years later, Suzanne leads an amazingly active life, traveling all around the country as a colorectal cancer advocate.

She credits her current quality of life to hitchhiking treatments, as well as to her CancerCare social worker Keith Lyons, who provided her with essential support and motivation through individual counseling and a support group.  “[Keith] said I could see cancer as a death sentence or I could celebrate the fact that I was very much alive and experience now,” Suzanne recalls.

The complete article is available here.

CancerCare offers online, telephone and face-to-face support groups that connect you with people who are in a similar situation. All support groups are free and led by professional oncology social workers who are experienced with cancer-related issues and concerns.

 

 

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Lung Cancer Treatment Guide Details New Treatments, Hope for Patients

April 5, 2010

Be a Survivor—Lung Cancer Treatment Guide is an optimistic, encouraging treatment guide that details the lung cancer experience from diagnosis to recovery

The guidebook was written by Vladimir Lange, M.D. to empower patients to seek a cure, rather than to accept defeat.  “New treatments, new drugs, and earlier diagnosis make survival much more likely than it was just a few years ago,” he notes.

CancerCare Lung Cancer Program Coordinator Win Boerkel calls Be a Survivorone of the best lung cancer patient guides I’ve seen in my 13 years of working with lung cancer patients.”

In 2009, CancerCare collaborated with leading patient advocacy groups to launch The Lung Cancer Clinical Trial Call to Action campaign, designed to help patients and their families navigate the complicated landscape of researching and identifying clinical trials. Patients can call 1-800-698-0931 to be matched with a Clinical Trial Specialist who will guide them through the entire process.

The CancerCare Co-Payment Assistance Foundation offers up to $10,000 per year in co-payment assistance for lung cancer patients in their families.

To order the guide, call 1-888-LANGE-88 (888-526-4388), or print out and fax back the order form.

Learn more about our free services for lung cancer patients and visit our sister website, www.lungcancer.org.

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New Campaign Provides Lung Cancer Patients Personalized Information About Clinical Trials

November 19, 2009

People diagnosed with lung cancer may benefit from a newly launched campaign to match lung cancer patients with current clinical trials based on their individual situations.

The Lung Cancer Clinical Trial Call to Action campaign offers easy-to-use educational and trial-matching resources to help identify clinical trials that are appropriate to each patient’s diagnosis, stage and treatment history.

The campaign is a collaboration of six leading patient advocacy organizations, including CancerCare’s lungcancer.org, a leading resource for people affected by lung cancer.

Patients can access the Lung Cancer Clinical Trial Matching Service online by visiting www.lungcancer.org or by calling 1-800-698-0931, to speak directly with a clinical trial specialist who can guide them through the entire process.

Other organizations in the campaign include the Lung Cancer Alliance, Uniting Against Lung Cancer, National Lung Cancer Partnership, LUNGevity and the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. EmergingMed is the service provider for the Lung Cancer Clinical Trials Matching Service.

The effort is being supported by several major pharmaceutical companies dedicated to the fight against lung cancer, including Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Amgen Inc., AstraZeneca, Genentech BioOncology, and Pfizer Oncology.

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Support for People Coping With Lung Cancer

November 19, 2009

November Is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

Over 200,000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009. Lung cancer not only affects patients but also families and loved ones. CancerCare offers free, professional counseling and practical support to anyone coping with a lung cancer diagnosis through its National Lung Cancer Program.

In addition, CancerCare’s online resource, www.lungcancer.org, provides reliable information to anyone affected by lung cancer. Learn more about the full range of services CancerCare offers to people facing lung cancer, including: counseling, support groups, financial assistance, publications and educational workshops.

You can also read stories of people who are coping with lung cancer and share your own story to help inspire others; and post a message in honor of a loved one on our Virtual Wall of Hope.

Listen to CancerCare’s upcoming Connect Education Workshops over the telephone or via live streaming through the internet (registration is required):

Dec. 9 - Clinical Trials: Improving Treatment Options and Care for People Living with Cancer
Jan. 15 - Understanding Adjuvant Therapy for Early-Stage Lung Cancer

To speak directly to an oncology social worker, call us at 1-800-813-HOPE (4673).

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Clinical Trials Need More Volunteers

August 4, 2009

Experts agree that one of the biggest barriers to advancing cancer research is the lack of volunteers who participate in clinical trials. Clinical trials, which test the safety effectiveness of new treatments and then compare them to standard treatments, are the only way advances can be made; however, only 3 percent of adult cancer patients participate.

A recent article  in the New York Times explores the reasons why clinical trial enrollment is so low and how researchers are working to change this through new methods of patient selection that would require far fewer than the usual 5,000-10,000 patients needed for each trial.

For more information on finding upcoming or ongoing clinical trials, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov and www.emergingmed.com.

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CancerCare Booklets Make Latest Research Easy to Understand

July 22, 2009

The latest findings in cancer research presented during annual medical conferences or scientific meetings can be hard for patients to sort through and comprehend.  CancerCare’s free booklets present these findings in an easy-to-understand format that helps patients, their loved ones and caregivers determine what impact new research might have on their particular diagnosis or treatment plan. Our latest booklets cover breast cancer (highlights from the 2008 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium), blood cancers (covering the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology), and other cancers (from the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology).

All CancerCare publications are completely free of charge and can be ordered directly from our website.

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