Advice on going out of area for cancer treatment

As an eight year survivor of advanced breast cancer and Network volunteer for the Unversity of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, I received an email today asking all volunteers to offer personal experiences on how they overcame the challenges of traveling away from home to get cancer treatment.

Here’s the query, followed by my reply:

Hello, Networkers,

Your experiences as a patient, either at M.D. Anderson or elsewhere, can be a big help to others who are following in your paths. I’m writing to ask your help by responding to either (or both!) of the questions below. We will compile the answers we receive, which will be printed as a House Call column in the ONCOLOG.

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Conquest: the online magazine for M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

There are a lot of great articles in this months’ issue of Conquest:

The first symposium involving the nation’s two premier cancer research organizations took place this April at the American Association for Cancer Research’s 100th annual meeting.

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Getting an appointment at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

I’ve lost track of how many times friends and family have contacted me, asking me to help ‘set them up’ with an appointment at the world’s finest center for the treatment of all types of cancer.

It’s something that I’m always more than happy to help with, since I credit M. D. Anderson Cancer Center with saving my life when I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, and I’ve gotten to know everybody from Dr. John Mendelsohn right down the line - especially since I facilitated a relationship between M. D. Anderson and one of our local hospitals.

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Cancer care: Chance to ask the experts!

Six times a year, Ask the Expert features a different cancer-related topic. Your questions are answered by M. D. Anderson faculty and staff members chosen to address topics in their fields of expertise. Whether you’re a patient or a caregiver, your questions are welcome.

Asking the expert is easy. Just go to www.mdanderson.org/asktheexpert at any time during the week indicated and type in your question. We’ll try our best to get you an answer within 24 hours.

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10 pieces help solve cancer puzzle

I’ve had a couple of opportunities to speak with Dr. Mendelsohn, president of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, Texas during my days as a breast cancer patient there.

Like all the people at MDACC, Dr. Mendelsohn is an amazing person and passionately dedicated to curing cancer once and for all. This article is a wonderful primer on just what you need to know about cancer, and how to prevent it. Another important point: to cure cancer we need great doctors, researchers and technicians. That requires a good education and a solid background in mathematics and sciences in our schools.

If you think that because your children or grandchildren are grown and gone - and therefore you don’t need to worry about paying for education in your community - what about the kid that might excel at math and science to become the doctor that puts your cancer into remission and perhaps cures it ( See item #5 below).

Is that worth the price? I was for me and still is.

Read what he has to say:

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