People with Rare Cancers Need Help too

People who are diagnosed with cancers that are rare have difficulty finding the help and support they need, indicate the findings of a study sponsored by Novartis Oncology and appearing in the current issue of CURE. CURE is a United States-based consumer magazine that focuses on cancer and cancer issues.

There is not a lot of information available on rare cancers and, perhaps understandably, it is often more difficult to get an accurate diagnosis quickly. The chances of being misdiagnosed are high, say the patients. Numbers seem to show that as many as one-third may have been misdiagnosed with several diagnosis before the truth was discovered.

This type of information is disturbing, because for every misdiagnosis, there are delays in treatment for what is really needed. As well, if a patient receives treatment for the wrong illness, we don’t know how this would or could affect his or her cancer or overall health.

In response to this, the magazine worked to put together a guide specifically for patients with rare cancers called the Patient’s Guide to Rare Cancer. The guide is available at the CUREtoday.com website.

This guide will allow you to find places to go to learn more about your specific type of cancer, treatment goals, patient assistance and more.

Do you know of any specific resources for the more rare cancers? Please feel free to share them in the comments section below. I can always put them together in a new post so people have a good reference available here at Blisstree.com.

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Image: Curetoday.com