Do No Harm
Before becoming a doctor, medical students must take the Hippocratic Oath. The initial statement of the oath is: “First, do no harm.” As a patient navigator, I also take this […]
Being Resilient
When someone is diagnosed or taking care of someone with a potentially deadly disease, such as melanoma, it may come with other things going wrong in life. Perhaps you are […]
Warrior or Weatherers? How Best to Deal with Melanoma Cancer
I’ve always been sensitive to the wording used casually to describe cancer patients. No matter the disease, it seems like others and the media put undue pressure on patients to […]
TIL Therapy for Melanoma: Magic Bullet? Or?
TIL Therapy also known as the ACT or adoptive cell transfer, is a therapy of great interest to many patients. There are some small trials currently ongoing at the National […]
Taking Care of the Caregiver
Calls and emails coming into the Melanoma International navigation services are often initiated by a caregiver. Their role has become increasingly important for comprehensive patient oncology care! Caregivers tend to […]
Discerning Hype from Hope
The media often has an exciting story headline that there is a new “cure” for melanoma. But before you get your hopes up, read further into these articles. Often it […]
Compassionate Use Isn’t Compassionate to All
The much reported story of Josh, a 7 year old child who needed an antibiotic drug not yet FDA approved to save his life, had a happy ending where his […]
Melanoma Research: Without Patients, It Doesn’t Exist
MIF makes the trek to Chicago for ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) where each year more than 25,000 cancer researchers attend the conference to share and learn about therapy […]
