24 October 2017
A national survey performed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology showed that many Americans are unaware of key cancer risk factors, including obesity, alcohol, lack of exercise, tobacco use and sun exposure. While doing “everything right” certainly is no guarantee of a healthy life (for example, many patients who develop lung cancer do not smoke) being aware of the lifestyle factors associated with cancer may lead to better health choices. In addition, all of these lifestyle factors are also associated with a lower likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, and other illness.
An additional finding of the survey was that 27% of respondents noted that either they or an immediate family member (who has / had cancer) took specific actions to decrease treatment costs including skipping appointments, postponed or didn’t fill prescriptions, skipped cancer medication doses, or cut cancer medications in half. We cannot hope to improve cancer outcomes without addressing the issues of cost of care and disparities in access to care.
