Money speaks to who gets diseases and who lives or dies from them

Whether it is cancer or some other disease, the cost of prevention and treatment often makes the decision of who lives or dies or an illness.

Research from Wake Forest University in 2010 raised concerns about cancer survivors and the fact cancer patients continue to suffer because of money woes.

Wake Forest is among those Universities actively involved in cancer research.

The research team,led by Kathryn E. Weaver, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences and lead author on the study,  looked at the prevalence of care involved in the overall treatment of cancer patients and how financial concerns impact that care.  Race and ethnic issues were also examined.

The analysis showed that among cancer survivors, the prevalence of forgoing care in the past year due to concerns about cost was 7.8 percent for medical care, 9.9 percent for prescription medications, 11.3 percent for dental care, and 2.7 percent for mental health care. Cancer survivors under the age of 65 years were one and a half to two times more likely to delay or forgo all types of medical care than their same-age peers without a history of cancer. Hispanic and black cancer survivors were more likely to go without prescription medications and dental care than white survivors.

Money problems create additional stress for those who are already under duress from medical problems.  The need for support groups is underlined by the fact that individuals need help from others about resources and emotional concerns as well.

And those who have studied those with long-term health problems, like diabetes, that give rise to serious medical issues, that includes cancer, heart disease and stroke, have found that the poor and disadvantaged are at far higher risks of death and disability than the more affluent individuals.  Again money speaks to who lives or dies today.

Future research needs to examine the impact of forgoing care on survivors’ quality of life and survival,” the authors wrote, with the need to examine the specifics services survivors did not receive in relationship to those prescribed by treating physicians.

The same is likely true of many other diseases because at the cost of preventative care and after care, what happens to patients depends upon one's finances, thus making the decision about who lives or dies from certain diseases.

Seven years of cancer term runs out for Steve Jobs

[caption id="attachment_9766" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Steve Jobs"][/caption]

4.7 percent is the five-year relative pancreatic cancer survival rate for white men. Steve Jobs was one of those who survived past that five-year mark, but the recurrence of cancer and Jobs eventual death shows the severity of the disease from which few people survive.

Jobs, the founder and principal guru of Apple,  died today, after battling cancer for seven years. Many people don’t discover they have the disease until it is too late for reasonable treatment, but Jobs was able to receive help early on. Jobs was diagnosed in 2004 with pancreatic cancer and underwent a process called pancreatioduodenectomy, which is the removal of the tumor from the pancreas. After the procedure, Steve was not required to have either chemotherapy or radiation. But last year Jobs underwent another surgery to replace his liver, and experts have speculated that’s because he had cancer again.

In March 2011, Science Daily reported research done at the University of Georgia that gives hope to pancreatic cancer patients.  Researchers identified a protein that helps restore CNT1 effectivene in killing pancreatic tumor cells. Lead author Raj Govindarajan, assistant professor of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences in the UGA College of Pharmacy, was quoted as saying, "The transporter was failing to take up the drug, so there were a bunch of different drug-resistant tumor cells." Govindarajan said, "Therapies that restore CNT1 could increase the effectiveness of the drug by helping carry the drug into the cell."

Jobs, who had it all,  had the spirit and will to battle cancer for seven years. He also had the money. For many people, the battle is not just with the cancer but fighting to pay the bills and fighting the insurance companies with the ceilings on benefit amounts.  Once treatment begins many people face thousands of dollars in extra costs, beyond their health insurance policies. Furthermore,  those who recover from cancer find they often are shut out of the private insurance industry, especially if they change employer and are often dropped by insurance companies once those benefits are exhausted.

Steve Jobs was an inventor, a talented man and a rich one. He survived cancer for seven years, the kind of cancer that kills most of its victims within five years of diagnosis.  While his death is mourned for the loss it creates in the world of technology,  it also reminds us of the value of major coverage and benefits for treatment and how important it is that cancer patients receive maximum help to live the longest period of time medicine is able to provide.