Cancer spec ialists from the [b]University of Chicago[/b] have developed an innovative new tool to measure a cancer patient's risk for and ability to tolerate financial stress, reports [s]Medical News Today[/s]. Currently, in the US, the cost of health care is rising faster than gross domestic product, the cost of cancer care is rising faster than the cost of health care, and the cost of new cancer drugs is rising faster than the overall cost of cancer care. Author of the tool, [b]COST (Comprehensive Score for financial Toxicity)[/b], Dr Jonas de Souza, a head-and-neck cancer spec ialist at the [b]University of Chicago Medicine[/b], says that few doctors discuss the financial burden of cancer with their patients adding: ‘We believe that a thoughtful, concise tool that could help predict a patient’s risk for financial toxicity might open the lines of communication … At the end, this is another important piece of information in the shared-decision-making process.’
[link url=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/278596.php]Full Medical News Today report[/link]
[link url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.28814/abstract]Cancer abstract[/link]