A new study published in Clinical Breast Cancer shines a light on the significant financial burden associated with breast cancer treatment. The study, “Mitigating Financial Toxicity in Breast Cancer from Diagnosis to Treatment and Reconstruction,” was co-authored by Nikita Roy and Dillan Villavisanis, medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and led by Dr. Peter J. Taub MD, MS, Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death among women. Nearly half of patients with a breast cancer diagnosis experience some level of financial distress.
Study author Nikita Roy, a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says she wanted to find out the extent of grant availability to women being treated for cancer and provide a reference for clinicians, patients, and families. In the paper, she describes twelve funding opportunities, uncovered through extensive web searching, that provide assistance to women ranging from $500 – $3,000. “With three thousand representing the absolute upper limit, it is unequivocal that there needs to be more attention paid to the funding of resources to patients,” says Ms Roy, who is taking a gap year to do research before starting her fourth year of medical school next year.
“Women are expected to take on the responsibility of head of the household, while managing careers and child care, and they really should be supported financially when diagnosed with breast cancer,” she says. “Financial resources are quite often determined by where you live and your financial status relative to the federal poverty level. Both of these criteria exclude large numbers of patients, which is concerning,” she says.
The grantors with the most extensive geographic distribution include the Breast Cancer Assistance Fund, Driving Miss Darby Assistance Fund, Sister’s Network, Inc., Susan G. Komen, and the United Breast Cancer Foundation. For New Yorkers Ms. Roy discovered the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation.
