Sue Rochman

BRCA: Who Should Be Tested?

suerochman breast cancer, Cancer, cancer disparities, cancer prevention, Cancer Today, Sue Rochman Leave a comment

MARISOL ROSAS ​was 8 years old when her mother, Celia Bazua de Rosas, died from ovarian cancer in 1981. It was her mother’s second cancer diagnosis. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42, shortly after Rosas, her sixth and last child, was born. For Rosas and her brothers and sisters, who were all raised in Baja California, Mexico, “there was always a concern,” she says, “that this could happen to any of us.” ​

As the siblings got older, their worries grew as three cousins on their mother’s side of the family were diagnosed with cancer. “One had breast cancer that spread to her brain,” says Rosas. “Another had breast cancer and then had a recurrence. Another had breast and ovarian cancer and then died of pancreatic cancer. I knew there was something going on, but I didn’t know what to do about it.”

Then, in 1998, Rosas got a call from a cousin who had moved from Mexico to California. Her cousin explained that her doctor had told her about a new blood test that could look for signs of an increased risk for breast or ovarian cancer. Her test had come back positive. She was calling to tell Rosas that she and her siblings should get tested, too.

Read the full story in the Winter 2019/2020 Issue of Cancer Today.

The Cost of Treatment

suerochman Cancer, cancer disparities, Cancer Today, metastatic cancer, Sue Rochman Leave a comment

With efforts underway to modify or repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, many cancer patients have spoken out about how affordable health insurance kept them from financial ruin. Magnifying their voices are the surveys and studies that illustrate the devastating monetary toll a cancer diagnosis can bring. Researchers have attempted to capture this distress with the term “financial toxicity,” which places the effect of high treatment costs on quality of life on an equal footing with the toxicity of the treatments themselves.

I explore the ramifications of the costs of cancer treatment in the Winter 2017/2018 issue of Cancer Today.

Here’s an excerpt:

When Candace Henley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in June 2003, her fear was tempered by the knowledge that she had good health insurance through her job as a bus driver with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).12-the-cost-of-treatment-600x200-WEB

At the time, Henley was 36 and raising five daughters, ages 4 to 15, alone. She had pulled off the American dream: a single-family home with a backyard. “We had a great life,” she recalls. “We had great health insurance. [Everything] was as perfect as it could be.” Her problems began when she didn’t have enough savings to stay afloat financially after her cancer treatments left her unable to work.

Every family that faces cancer experiences the shock of learning that the disease is now at their doorstep. But once the diagnosis is made, paths can quickly diverge. The first fork in the road: whether you have health insurance and what type you have. The second: whether you have savings to cover deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.