Roger Szafranski is an advocate for those getting cancer treatments who says he is seeking to fill a vacuum between the large-scale efforts to cure cancer and large medical facilities treating the disease and the everyday fears and needs of persons who learn they have cancer.
“I”™m not trying to challenge doctors in any way, shape or form,” said Szafrinski. “What I”™m trying to do is give the patient as much information as I possibly can.”
Szafranski, of Stormville, is seeking to create a not-for-profit business that could fund his counseling efforts and perhaps provide resources for him to train other cancer patient advocates. Almost 560,000 people died of cancer in the United States in 2007, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society and about 600 people per 100,000 in the population will contract some form of cancer annually.
Yet, there is little help available in the Hudson Valley for a person who has received what Szafranski calls a disorienting diagnosis. “Being an advocate for the individual cancer patient is something nobody does,” said Szafranski. “Once they get a diagnosis of cancer, they”™re scared and feel like a deer in the headlights, they really don”™t know where to turn. I can supply specific clinical information as well as support.”
The American Cancer Society says it is already filling the need. “We do offer that patient navigator that offers what we see as providing the advocate service,” said Jennifer Coulombe, media relations specialist with the American Cancer Society. The navigator is available part time at hospitals and “can walk people A-Z through everything they need to know,” she said, citing material from literature on the disease to wigs for chemo-therapy patients.
Szafranski has already been doing informal cancer patient advocate work and said he is repeatedly struck by the lack of information about the disease and treatment options. Doctors and hospitals do not always steer patients to treatment options at other hospitals, either through lack of time or resources to provide such information.
He cites many examples, including the case of a 32-year-old man diagnosed with prostate cancer. He said that when he asked what stage the cancer was in, in terms of its Gleason score, the patient replied that he did not know what a Gleason score was. Szafranski said it is a vital and routine measurement of prostate cancer progression, with Grade 1 on the Gleason scale being the least problematic and Grade 5 being the most severe. He said that the Gleason score should be routinely explained to all prostate cancer patients.
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He added the man in this case also did not know about treatment options and had instead agreed with the recommendation of his doctor to have the prostate removed, not aware that such a radical procedure could lead to bladder control problems and sexual dysfunction, and that far less invasive and draconian treatments are available. It turned out the man had a grade one cancer, and ultimately, he said, the patient sought more information and successfully used noninvasive treatments and is now fully recovered and fully functional.
“What I”™m doing is specifically dealing with the treatment of the patient”™s cancer, talking to the patient about what the doctor has determined and what their options are,” said Szafranski. “Its filling a need.”
Szafranski”™s office number is (845) 226-5061.
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