Finding Hope in Cancer's Aftermath

IT CAN BE DIFFICULT to fathom a cancer diagnosis, let alone even begin to think about the aftermath of the associated treatment. For many women, ending treatment is met with bone density issues, such as osteopenia and osteoporosis.

It’s crucial for health care teams to understand each woman’s bone health status and risk of fractures before deciding on a course of treatment. Although this is a major concern, there are strategies to achieve better bone health such as eating foods that are high in calcium or adding an exercise regimen to the daily routine.

In this special issue of CURE, one of the features explores the different therapies that can play a role in bone health. Two patients share how they were affected following treatment and despite the challenges, they remained hopeful.

Another feature introduces gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN), which are a group of placenta-related cancers that can develop following pregnancy, miscarriage or abortion. These types of malignancies are rare and very curable, but can often be isolating to the women diagnosed. In these pages, you will hear from a woman who learned she had GTN after the tumors metastasized to her liver, lungs, kidney, pancreas and brain. After putting up the fight for her life, she is now in remission.

Saving lives involves bringing the best and latest available therapies to patients. One of the ways to do so is through clinical trials. However, enrollment of women with gynecologic cancers has decreased in recent years. The Foundation for Women’s Cancer has brought the clinical trial crisis into the limelight. The foundation explains how it’s trying to eliminate the decrease through advocacy and awareness.

When clinical trials or other cancer-related studies present positive results, the data generally make its way to the mainstream media. The unfortunate result is news hype. Patients start to read headlines and stories that sound promising, but may actually be misleading or inaccurate. In the “Speaking Out” column, a 20-year breast cancer survivor discusses a new program that ranks cancerrelated news articles. It helps patients identify potential hype by ranking news articles and putting clinical data into language that is more easily understood. In doing so, patients can be better informed to make decisions on their health.

Also in this issue, addressing sexual health concerns of patients and their partners, using blueberries to treat cervical cancer and seeing the new, better you after a cancer diagnosis. As always, thank you for reading.

MIKE HENNESSY, SR. Chairman and CEO