Thanksgiving offers a special moment to pause and appreciate life’s blessings—whether they are grand or simple. For those navigating a health challenge like cancer, finding reasons to be grateful can feel harder, yet even small joys can shine brightly during this season.
Related: Stay Positive, It Matters
Read More1. Caring Oncologists
Oncologists are doctors who treat cancer. Having a supportive, attentive, and caring oncologist is a key component of the cancer journey. We’re grateful for the dedicated oncologists throughout the world who are driven to improve the lives of others through cancer care.
2. Oncological Social Workers
An oncological social worker is a social worker who helps you navigate the ins and outs of your cancer journey financial, emotional, et cetera. For many people diagnosed with cancer, this type of support is invaluable.
Sarah Stapleton, a licensed clinical social worker at Montefiore Medical Center, says in an earlier interview, “I think it’s super important to see a social worker. I think there’s a network that they can assist you with. And they really have the strongest knowledge of the resources available to get you through the process.”
She continues, “I think social work– one of the primary roles is advocacy. It’s meeting the patient and understanding the patient’s needs and understanding what it is you need in this very moment, whether that be financial resources, whether it be related to your insurance, transportation, or ultimately, the emotional process of getting through cancer treatment.”
The Value of Using a Social Worker During Treatment
3. Therapists & Psychologists
For many people, a cancer diagnosis can lead to feelings of grief, anxiety, and depression. It’s important to treat your mental health issues throughout your cancer journey, as they can impact cancer treatments.
“Depression and stress make it harder to treat cancer, make it harder to tolerate the treatments.”
In an earlier interview, Dr. Scott Irwin of Cedars-Sinai explains the way clinical depression may affect someone battling cancer. He says, “Depression is a really interesting topic, because a lot of people assume that, oh, they have cancer. They must be depressed. That’s actually not true. 85% of patients do not get what would be considered a clinical depression. 15% do.”
“For prescribing medications for depression in the context of cancer, I often try to choose medications with the lowest side effect profile,” says Dr. Irwin. “If patients are getting hormonal therapy, there are particular antidepressants that we can’t use, because they may lower the effectiveness of that hormonal therapy. And so we choose antidepressants that don’t impact the cancer care. Depression and stress make it harder to treat cancer, make it harder to tolerate the treatments.”
Treating Depression After a Cancer Diagnosis
4. Advances in Treatment and Research
Access to new therapies, clinical trials, and practice-changing approaches to treating different types of cancer continued to offer much-needed hope for patients and their loved ones.
Another Treatment Option for Advanced Prostate Cancer Patients
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several treatments, including lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan (brand name: Pluvicto) for men with PSMA-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have been treated with an androgen receptor pathway inhibitor (ARPI) and are eligible to delay chemotherapy.
Until now, Pluvicto has been available only for patients who had already undergone chemotherapy. Now, it can be used earlier — before chemo is required — tripling the number of eligible patients and giving many more men the chance to access this innovative therapy. Trial data showed that using Pluvicto in this setting reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 59% compared to switching to another hormone therapy.
Hope For Some Brain Cancer Patients
For over a decade, glioma treatment has remained largely unchanged, leaving patients with limited options beyond surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. However, a recent breakthrough has given new hope to those diagnosed with this type of brain tumor.
The INDIGO Trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, has demonstrated that a new drug, Vorasidenib, can significantly delay the progression of glioma and reduce the need for more aggressive treatments like chemotherapy and radiation in patients with mutations in the IDH1 or IDH2 genes. This discovery marks a major step forward in glioma care and offers a promising new treatment pathway for patients.
“Vorasidenib goes after IDH mutation and in doing so, kills the cancer cells,” Dr. David Peereboom, a medical oncologist specializing in brain tumors at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, tells SurvivorNet.
Treatment Advancements Give Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Another Reason to Have Hope
Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan or Dato-DXd) received FDA approval for people with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who harbor a common EGFR mutation.
“This approval is especially important for patients whose cancer has progressed after previous treatment or who could not tolerate earlier therapies,” Dr. Fatemeh Ardeshir, thoracic oncologist at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, tells SurvivorNet.
Breast Cancer Patients Find Hope In FDA Approval
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved imlunestrant (brand name Inluriyo), the second oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), for adults with estrogen-receptor–positive (ER+), HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose disease has progressed after at least one line of endocrine therapy. The FDA also cleared the Guardant360 CDx liquid biopsy test to help doctors identify eligible patients.
ESR1 mutations are a common cause of resistance to standard hormone therapy in ER+/HER2- advanced breast cancer. This approval finally gives patients and clinicians a targeted oral SERD option.
Popular Immunotherapy Treatment Approved to Be Administered In a Different Way
The FDA also approved a new way to administer pembrolizumab (brand name: Keytruda), one of the most widely used immunotherapy treatments for cancer. For the first time, patients with solid tumors can receive Keytruda as a quick injection under the skin, instead of through a traditional intravenous (IV) infusion. Pembrolizumab has already been approved to help treat several cancer types, including melanoma, lung cancer, and stomach (gastric) cancer.
5. Caretakers & Support Systems
Caretakers and support networks through cancer – which can include friends, partners, spouses, and religious communities – are vital during cancer. Having a sense of support while going through a health battle makes the journey easier to bear and less lonely.
Related: For Ovarian Cancer Patients, Support Groups Can Offer Comfort and Encouragement
Beverly Reeves recalls in an earlier interview how important her community was to her after her ovarian cancer diagnosis. Her advice for someone newly diagnosed with cancer is to reach out for support. She tells us, “If I had one piece of advice for someone who had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it would be to get a strong support group together. Get your close friends. If you’re connected to a faith community, get your faith community.”
“Get your family. Let them know what’s going on and let them help you,” says Reeves.
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