Partnering on America’s toughest challenges

Helping the White House Cancer Moonshot address the needs of young adults with cancer

Opportunities

Stakeholder interviews and a roundtable identified five key categories to better meet patient assistance needs:
Accessing educational resources
Accessing quality information to set expectations about clinical treatment and prognosis, find resources, and set priorities for decision-making
Finding the right care
Finding resources to support decision-making about where to go, who to see, and how to get there, from the initial suspicion of cancer onwards
Getting psychosocial support
Finding emotional and social support to improve the cancer journey and help with expectation management, logistics of care, decision-making, and advocating for patient needs at point of care
Understanding financial implications
Understanding the financial implications of cancer treatment for both insured and uninsured patients
Managing the health record
Understanding what information to bring, how to provide it, and how to grant permission for it to be used for care

Childhood Cancer (CC)–Connect is a vital component within the cancer care trajectory in that it focuses on the resources needed to bridge the gap in needs and services for adolescents and young adults who navigate a unique set of challenges in their transition to adult care. It’s a transformative effort in health data sharing for childhood cancer survivors and will identify and create resources and pathways for the continuity of care among this population as part of this one-of-a-kind public-private partnership, NCI’s CC–Direct initiative.

Tara Henderson, MD, MPH, FASCO

In alignment with the White House Cancer Moonshot to ‘end cancer as we know it,’ CC–Connect serves as an opportunity to identify much-needed educational resources and support for adolescent and young adult patients. Coordination and management of aspects such as health records will help patients and their caregivers navigate their care from diagnosis to survivorship. This framework amplifies ASCO’s mission to conquer cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality, equitable patient care.

Janette Merrill, DHA

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