Copelink Blog

A wholesome and nourishing diet plays an essential part in your overall health. This is especially true when coping with cancer. However, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy diet while managing the side effects of chemo. Luckily, there are steps you can take which will help you remain strong and healthy throughout your chemotherapy treatment.

Anxiety is very common among people with cancer. For some it occurs when they wake up, and for others, as they try to go to sleep.

CancerCare’s Men’s Cancers Program Director, Richard Dickens, MS, LCSW-R, addresses three common concerns that can interfere with sleep, and offers tips to reduce anxiety and help you get a good night’s rest.

Coping can be challenging when you or a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. If you are in distress, it may be difficult to perform everyday tasks, keep up with treatments or care for yourself. Throughout the treatment process, some people may decide to incorporate integrative techniques into their lives to cope. Integrative medicine helps manage symptoms and side effects using different therapies along with standard cancer treatment. Common side effects of cancer treatment include fatigue, psychological distress, nausea, and pain. An integrative approach may help you.

As many patients and families know all too well, a cancer diagnosis can make the daily challenges that once seemed relatively simple suddenly become overwhelming. At CancerCare, we strive to provide assistance to people with cancer that can help cover costs related to treatment, to ease some of that extra burden and provide peace of mind.

That is why we are extremely pleased to share that CancerCare has received $1.5 million from Susan G. Komen to assist people diagnosed with breast cancer.

A cancer diagnosis is often challenging and may trigger a world of unexpected emotions. During this time, it may be hard to make informed decisions. The myths (and even some of the realities) surrounding the word “cancer” can cause patients and families to act out of fear, and prevent them from researching their options or engaging with their health care team. CancerCare intern Breana McDonald provides some easy, practical tips for informed decision-making: a practice that can make all the difference when coping with cancer.

Today, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting kicks off in Chicago, Illinois. To commemorate the start of this key event, CancerCare’s Education Program staff take a look back at how access of cancer patients to supportive care has improved in the last twenty years, and examine the changing needs of patients over this time period.

For people with cancer, coping with the loss of fertility can seem secondary. But for many, it is viewed as something everlasting, staying with them long after there is no longer evidence of the disease. As overwhelming as this new normal may seem, there are ways to cope with the feelings that may arise. CancerCare oncology social worker and guest blogger Angelique Caba, LCSW, discusses different ways of coping with fertility loss after cancer.

I have been in the helping profession for a long time as an educator, volunteer outreach program director, interfaith minister, non-profit administrator and chaplain. During the aftermath of 9/11, I served as a volunteer chaplain helping families and survivors in crisis.

Cancer. The word itself provokes a vast array of emotional responses: fear, anger, sadness, confusion. People are fearful of this diagnosis, of the way it can change someone’s life and the various “unknowns” that surround an individual and his or her loved ones.

Palliative care is specialized medical treatment that focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. Traditionally, palliative care has been accessed only toward the end of life. Many recent studies however, have shown that introducing it earlier into cancer patients’ care plans results in improved quality of life, living longer and lower medical costs.