Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
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Multiple Myeloma Survivors- Surviving Long-term Financial Toxicity
“Due to the use of novel therapies and the need for extended treatment duration, patients with multiple myeloma are more vulnerable to it.1″
I understand the articles linked below because I live them. When multiple myeloma survivors first conclude their initial therapies they may want to simply move on. Many of us no longer want to even think about our MM.
Have I skipped routine MM testing over the years because it was expensive? You bet.
The kicker is that MM survivors always relapse. Conventional MM oncology can’t cure MM. Oncology has gotten pretty good at putting newly diagnosed MM patients into remission.
The problem and expense comes when you relapse and must purchase (co-pay or deductible) more chemotherapy.
My belief is that multiple myeloma survivors must think small aka low dose. By this I mean work with your oncologist to take conventional therapies yet consider including integrative and complementary therapies in order to lower the dose, lower the cost of conventional therapies.
For more information about integrative and complementary mm therapies scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- Long-term MM Survivor
- MM Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Integrative Therapies for Cancer
- Cancer Coaching-“Is my Oncologist Speaking a Foreign Language!?
- Cancer Coaching: How to Avoid Caregiver Burnout: 7 Tips for Caregivers of Young Adult Cancer..
Financial Toxicity Common in Patients With Multiple Myeloma
“Financial toxicity is increasingly affecting patient quality of life and medication adherence in patients with cancer. Due to the use of novel therapies and the need for extended treatment duration, patients with multiple myeloma are more vulnerable to it.1
Patient-reported financial toxicity was common in an insured population with multiple myeloma, according to a study published online ahead of print in The Lancet Haematology…
Cost concerns prevent many cancer survivors from getting medical care
“A new study led by a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researcher shows that two million cancer survivors are forgoing needed medical care because of concerns about cost…
Published early online today in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study raises the concern that the long-term health and well-being of cancer survivors could suffer because patients have financial worries about their care.
A team led by Kathryn E. Weaver, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences and lead author on the study, examined the prevalence of forgoing different types of health care due to financial concerns. Researchers sought to determine whether cancer history and race or ethnicity were associated with individuals’ likelihood to go without care.
The investigators analyzed information from the annual U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an in-person, nationwide survey of 30,000 to 40,000 households in the civilian, non-institutionalized population that is used to track trends in illness and disability in the United States. Data from 6,602 adult cancer survivors and 104,364 individuals with no history of cancer, who were surveyed in the 2003 to 2006 NHIS, were included in the study.
Financial Toxicity Prevalent in Older Cancer Patients
“About one in five older cancer patients report experiencing financial toxicity, according to researchers from the University of Rochester in New York.
In a large cohort of more than 500 patients aged 70 years and older, 18% stated they were experiencing financial problems related to the cost of their treatment and that this was taking a toll on their care, quality of life, and mental well-being.
Compared with those not experiencing financial issues, patients reporting financial toxicity had a higher prevalence of severe anxiety (18% vs 7%) and depression (27% vs 21%), as well as a poorer quality of life (41% vs 22%).
The study also found that many older patients report delaying taking medication and/or are unable to afford their basic needs, explained lead author Asad Arastu, MSc, a medical student at the University of Rochester.
“Patients said that they were unable to afford medication and also had problems like the need to take time off work, not being able to afford gas, and cost concerns in other domains,” he told Medscape Medical News. “There are a lot of missed opportunities, as patients have these concerns and they are not being discussed.””