Supportive Care Strategies for Promoting Health Equity in Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer remains the highest cancer incidence globally. In the United States, approximately 242,000 men and women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. While recent advancements have brought on more opportunities for treatment and cure, most cancer treatments come with side effects.

The most common side effects for cancer treatment include neutropenia, lymphedema, hair loss, nausea and vomiting, memory issues, pain, blood clots, among other issues. With these and other adverse effects from treatment, breast cancer patients may have unmet supportive care needs such as symptom management, educational, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. Access to supportive oncology, also known as comprehensive cancer care, services are crucial for quality patient-centered care and can serve to reduce health disparities among underserved populations.

Although supportive services are recommended in guidelines and required by accreditation bodies, supportive care resources are often considered a low priority in underserved areas and are often dependent on funding and resource availability. Current research shows that when supportive cancer care needs are under-recognized and under-treated, patients and caregivers may experience negative outcomes such as increased suffering, decreased quality of life, reduced compliance with medical treatment, longer hospitalizations, and the possibility of decreased survival odds. Cancer-related financial hardship is associated with reduced quality of life, treatment nonadherence, and early mortality. Additionally, African Americans, women, and people with low-income experience financial hardship with greater frequency and severity.