Providing Better Cancer Treatment through Financial Planning and Patient-Centered Care
As a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Fumiko Chino specializes in the treatment of breast and gynecological cancer. Her research field is focused on access, affordability, and equity in cancer care, with a particular interest in the financial toxicity of cancer treatment.
In her work, financial toxicity has come to represent the costs that patients bear when undergoing treatment, which can have downstream effects on their ability to pay for treatments, and may result in sacrifices that patients and their families have to make. Unfortunately, patients may even face increased symptom burden, uncontrolled disease, and death. Sometimes, patients go bankrupt or lose their homes, and a cancer diagnosis can lead to generational poverty. The financial toxicity of cancer care can create real, measurable barriers that may end up in delays in essential cancer treatment or skipping of treatments altogether, leading to worse outcomes for patients that can even cause death.
Chino’s expertise lies in finding new ways to reduce these toxic effects on cancer patients, and one of her new focuses is on the administrative burdens that patients face as they undergo treatment. The care has become more complex and expensive, and more of these burdens are falling onto the patients – making them apply for short or long-term disability, filling out paperwork for FMLA, and filing for an insurance appeal for prior authorization. All of these things create anxiety and additional stress, leading to tangible barriers to care. The focus of the research is now shifting to improving the lived experience of cancer in patients and improving results.
Patient-Centered Care Shift
At ASCO, the world’s leading cancer conference, where 40,000 oncologists and cancer providers come together seeking new and innovative treatments for cancer, the focus is not just on finding new and novel treatment plans for different types of cancer, such as new drugs or care methods, but a new focus is emerging on patient-centered care. The focus on patient experience has become a new and evolving approach in the field, which stresses how people can tolerate their treatment, how they can afford treatment, and how they survive and thrive after cancer treatment.
The focus is now on ensuring that the patient is not just surviving cancer, but thriving after treatment and thus becoming a new approach in the field. The hope is that this evolving approach will extend to all aspects of medicine and always stay focused on what truly makes a patient’s life longer and better, with the patient being the center of attention. In a way, the relationship between the oncologist and the patient takes a new turn. It’s no longer only about administering treatment to patients, but rather making the experience of cancer treatment easier for patients.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when it comes to treating cancer, we need to think more about the long-term financial effects that come with it. We must also work harder to reduce the administrative burdens that are being placed on patients and improve the quality of life of the patients by treating them with respect, care, and empathy while administering the treatment. By shifting the focus to patient-centered care, cancer patients are more likely to thrive in their battle with cancer, and their lives are more likely to be better managed in the long run.
Summary
Fumiko Chino, a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and researcher in cancer care access, affordability, and equity, explains how the financial toxicity of cancer care can lead to patient bankruptcy and even generational poverty. Her research focuses on finding new solutions to reduce barriers that patients face when trying to pay for cancer care, and she is also working on reducing the administrative burden and stress that many patients undergo during treatments. Chino suggests a patient-centered care approach so that the cancer patients are not just surviving cancer but thriving after treatment. This approach focuses on empathic treatment, the patient’s quality of life, and their overall well-being.
Additional Piece – Cancer Care in Developing Countries
While financial toxicity is a concern for cancer patients in developed countries, the situation is even more dire for cancer patients in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, more than 70% of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, and the number is expected to increase.
The problem is that developing countries lack the financial resources to provide standard cancer treatment. The cost of cancer treatments, radiation therapy, and surgery can be prohibitive. Even for patients who can afford treatment, there may not be any cancer treatment centers close to home, forcing them to travel to urban areas, or even to other countries, to receive treatment. This often exacerbates cancer’s financial burden on the patients and their families due to increased expenses associated with travel and lodging.
There is, therefore, a need for affordable or free cancer treatment options for patients in developing countries. This will require more support from governments and international funding agencies to increase the availability of cancer treatment options and increase the number of competent medical personnel. In this regard, partners need to work together to find viable options that can help improve cancer care in developing countries.
An innovative solution to this problem is teleoncology, where cancer care is provided remotely using telecommunication and information technologies. While teleoncology provides a promising solution for developing countries due to its cost-effectiveness, it needs to be scaled up adequately so that all patients in need can access it. Other initiatives, such as mobile chemotherapy units, must be scaled up as well to ensure that patients in remote areas or areas affected by conflict have access to quality cancer care.
A partnership between developed and developing countries in cancer research and care can produce more favorable outcomes for cancer patients worldwide. Developed countries can help in the training of medical personnel in developing countries, while joint research efforts can produce innovative solutions that can help improve cancer care for all.
Overall, while financial toxicity is a concern for cancer patients globally, the situation is more challenging for cancer patients in developing countries that lack adequate resources. A concerted effort is needed to address this issue if we are to ensure that all cancer patients, regardless of their geographic location or economic status, have access to quality cancer treatments.
Sources:
1. World Health Organization: Cancer Key Facts
2. ASCO Daily News: Global Oncology – Investing in Cancer Control and Prevention from a Business Perspective
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FUMIKO CHINO: My name is Fumiko Chino and I’m a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. And I specialize in the treatment of breast and gynecological cancer. My research focuses on access, affordability, and equity in cancer care. And my main research topic is about the financial toxicity of cancer care.
The term financial toxicity has really evolved to refer to the costs that patients bear and the downstream effects of how these actually affect their lives, their ability to pay for their treatments, the sacrifices that patients and their families have to make, and sometimes , the negative consequences in terms of increased symptom burden, uncontrolled disease and, unfortunately, death. We know that our patients are sometimes making incredible sacrifices to pay for their care. They go bankrupt. They may be losing their home. And there may be generational poverty associated with a cancer diagnosis.
We know that the concept of financial toxicity is not limited to cancer. There are many healthcare states in the United States that are incredibly expensive. We know that people cannot afford their asthma medicines. They cannot afford their diabetes medicines. But my focus has always been on cancer.
One of the growing and evolving research topics here at ASCO, the world’s leading oncology conference, is this concept of administrative burden that we are placing on patients. So let’s say you have a cancer diagnosis and you’re just trying to deal with the treatment and the side effects, and also balance your family and maybe work. But what we’ve discovered over time is that as care has become more complex and expensive, more and more of these administrative burdens are falling on patients. That means patients may have to apply for short-term or long-term disability. They may have to fill out paperwork for FMLA. And they may have to file an insurance appeal for their prior authorizations.
All of these things are significant because they create additional stress and anxiety for our patients. And ultimately, if these don’t go as planned, they can actually create real, measurable barriers to care. That can mean a delay in essential cancer treatment. Or it may mean that people have to skip treatments altogether. And that can actually lead, again, to worse outcomes for our patients. That could be a higher symptom burden or even, again, death. That is why our focus has always been to try to improve results. But the shift has been more towards, how can we really improve the lived experience of cancer?
FUMIKO CHINO: So I’m at ASCO, which is the world’s leading cancer conference, where 40,000 oncologists and cancer providers come together. And what we’re identifying are new and novel treatments for cancer. And that means new drugs or new care plans, but it also means an increasing focus on patient-centered care.
So instead of just focusing on the drugs, we also want to make sure that the patient experience, which is how people tolerate their treatment, how they can afford their treatment, and make sure that they’re actually not just surviving. cancer, but thriving after completing cancer treatment. That has become a new and evolving approach in our field. And I hope that extends to all aspects of medicine, not just cancer care, that we’re always focused on what really makes a patient’s life longer and better.
https://www.webmd.com/cancer/asco-2023-special-report/20230602/cancer-patient-experience?src=RSS_PUBLIC
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