“If this were a drug that had a survival advantage of this magnitude, it would be priced at $100,000, and we would ask how do we get this into our practice” (Burstein, 2017)
In a call to action, Barry Bultz (2024) advocates for the “inclusion of psychosocial oncology as a standard of care for oncology programs” (p.1). In his appeal, Bultz references results that show patients with metastatic cancer lived longer and experienced higher quality of life, with fewer emergency room visits, when given the opportunity to self-report symptoms than those who did not (Basch et al., 2017). These findings, presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology, prompted Harold Burstein from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) to equate the impact of self-report measures on psychophysiological outcomes with those found via pharmacological treatments alone (quoted above).
The implications of this statement are not surprising to oncology psychologists and chaplains; we understand the importance and necessity of providing patients with the psychological and spiritual tools they need.
Thank you for supporting us in this call to action.
We receive funding via research grants and private donations.
Our primary goal is to increase the quality of care that patients receive.
Please contact us if you would like to support our work…
and thank you so much.
Bultz, B. (2024). The science of caring: A call to action. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice, 6(3):138.
Basch et al. (2017). Overall survival results of a trial assessing patient-reported outcomes for symptom monitoring during routine
cancer treatment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 318(2):197–198.