The Cancer.im Foundation mission is to save lives by empowering every cancer patient with the ability to research their disease and assist in finding, organizing and managing their own cancer support network, regardless of their ability to pay. The Cancer.im vision is based on the Robert Ryan Cancer Protocol- a modular 16 part best practice guide on teaching and assisting cancer patients and their
loved ones on the critical role of Quality of Life and how to raise it when managing a diagnosis of cancer. Cancer accounts for 1 in every 4 deaths, second only to heart disease as the most common cause of death. The monetary cost seems irrelevant to the loss of life. Overall costs of cancer are projected to exceed $201 billion in 2013: $77 billion for direct medical costs (all health expenditures) as well as over $124 billion for the indirect mortality costs. One weapon on this war on cancer is Quality of Life (QoL). On October 27, 2007 Dr. Nikolaou, on behalf of Fox Chase Medical Center (a National Comprehensive Cancer Network) published a double blind placebo controlled study titled “Quality of Life (QOL) Supersedes the Classic Predictors of Survival in Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).” The study was designed to evaluate the role of QoL as a prediction for survival. Some 91 percent of patients completed a standardized QoL survey before treatment. All patients were followed for at least 17 months. What they found is quality of life emerged as the most significant predictor of overall patient survival.
“…We conducted two different statistical analyses including all the usual prognostic factors and either way, quality of life remained the strongest predictor of overall survival,”“…What’s more, if a patient’s quality of life increased over time, we saw a corresponding increase in survival,” said Dr. Benjamin Movsas of Henry Ford Hospital. This study concluded that by raising a Cancer Patients Quality of Life via the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30, you could directly lower the incidence of morbidity in a cancer patient, regardless of treatment.
