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Cancer Survivors: Addressing ongoing needs Join this Group

Is the recession affecting your cancer treatment?

By Expert HERWriter Guide Blogger August 7, 2010 - 9:13am

A recent news article on EmpowHER caught my eye - Recession Causing Cancer Patients to Quit Life-Extending Drugs. You can find the article here: https://www.empowher.com/cancer/content/recession-causing-cancer-patients-quit-life-extending-drugs

The article talks about patients who take Gleevec (imatinib) for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). This is the same drug that I take for CML - Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia - and it currently costs about $5,000 a month. This is a lifelong expense for the patients who need it. The cost of this drug, and the rest of my cancer treatment, has created multiple issues for me and I can well understand the problems the patients cited in this news story were dealing with. Other cancer patients who are friends of mine are also experiencing major issues, including the loss of their homes and businesses, as a direct results of the cost of their cancer care.

What about the rest of you? Any good advice on how to keep the financial burdens of cancer from affecting our ability to heal and move on with our lives?

Pat