Factors that affect the ability to work in people with metastatic cancer
https://www.facingourrisk.org/XRAY/metastatic-breast-cancer-and-employment
Full article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.29656/abstract
Some patients who live with metastatic cancer either want or need to continue working while coping with symptoms of their disease and treatment. A recent study that looked at over 600 people with metastatic breast, prostate, colon, or lung cancer found that about one-third of them continue working full or part time. People most likely to continue working were those undergoing hormonal treatment and those with less severe symptoms or side effects from treatment. (4/12/16)
Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider
- I want to go back to work but I have symptoms from my treatment or my cancer. What options/treatments can improve my symptoms?
- What can I do to improve my symptoms enough so that I’m able to work more comfortably?
- I do not want to go back to work, but feel like I need to. How should I handle this?
- Do I qualify for disability benefits? Are there people who can help me apply?
Open Clinical Trials
- NCT03572374: Talking to Employers and Medical Staff About Breast Cancer Treatment and Your Job (TEAMWORK Study). The purpose of the TEAMWork study is to learn more about how being treated for breast cancer affects patients' employment. Researchers are testing an early version of a mobile app called TEAMWork (Talking to Employers And Medical staff about Work) that is designed to help breast cancer patients keep their jobs during and after treatment.
- NCT02333604: Cancer Experience Registry. This is a web-based registry that distributes surveys to better understand the social, emotional, physical, financial and decision-making experiences of cancer patients and their caregivers.
- NCT04960787: Financial Navigation Program to Improve Understanding and Management of Financial Aspects of Cancer Care for Patients and Their Spouses. This clinical trial examines a financial navigation program in helping patients and their spouses understand and better manage the financial aspects of cancer care.
- NCT04397016: Cost Talk: Discussing Cancer Care Costs. This study will look at how well a decision aid (used during a consultation) containing cost information about options, combined with clinician training about cost discussions and available financial resources help patients with slow-growing prostate cancer.
- NCT04931251: Addressing Cancer-Related Financial Toxicity in Rural Oncology Care Settings. The purpose of this study is to conduct a financial navigation program in 5 rural and 4 non-rural oncology practices in North Carolina and evaluate the effects of financial navigation on patient outcomes, including financial toxicity and health-related quality of life.
- NCT04766190: DISCO: A Patient Intervention to Reduce the Financial Burden of Cancer. The DISCO App is designed to improve, during the interaction, patient active participation and patient-initiated oncologist treatment cost discussions, and, in the short term, patient's treatment cost knowledge, self-efficacy for managing both cost and physician interactions, referrals, perceived financial toxicity (i.e., distress and material hardship); in turn, these will affect longer-term outcomes of financial toxicity and adherence.
- NCT04314284: Patient-Centered Intervention to Reduce Cancer Patients' Financial Toxicity. This study will look at an intervention to prompt screening for financial distress, facilitate discussions about care costs with for colorectal or gynecologic cancer patients, support health insurance selection, and ultimately reduce cancer patients' financial toxicity associated with cancer care.
About FORCE
FORCE is a national nonprofit organization, established in 1999. Our mission is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by adult hereditary cancers.