New Online Tool Helps Cancer Patients Know Their Survival Rates

Needless to say, cancers can be life-threatening and the first thought after a devastating cancer diagnosis will be pertaining to the survival rates. A newly launched free online prognosis tool CancerSurvivalRates.com tells cancer patients how long they have left to live.

The website provides a simple tool that can be customized according to a patient’s cancer type, grade, stage and personal details including their gender and age.

The goal of this tool, according to its co-founder, is not only to provide prognosis-related information but also to encourage patients to discuss with their doctors about it.

“We want the patient to do the research for the purpose of having a conversation with the doctor. These are just statistics, based on their profile, but it provides the basis for further discussion,” Medscape Medical News quoted Stephen Buck, CEO, and co-founder of Courage Health the company behind CancerSurvivalRates.com. “Once you hear something shocking like a cancer diagnosis, you can really be overwhelmed. And a lot of studies have shown that patients often don't understand what they are told about a prognosis. The physician, for example, may use language that may be hard for patients to understand," he added.

They use the same data like the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute but an easier-to-use interface alongside questions one might want to ask a doctor.

Oncologists opine that no algorithm or even a clinician’s best judgment might be 100% correct at all times. But this website provides information in a more user-friendly way compared to other sites. The tool is also an excellent framework of discussion about potential outcomes to allow conversations between a cancer patient and oncologists.

According to the founders of this site, determining a person’s prognosis is much more nuanced than what can be captured in any website. According to some oncologists that Medscape Medical News discussed, the cancer survival rates with various parameters were accurate. They also opined that the tool will be useful for both oncologists as well as cancer patients alike.

However, patients need to understand that the interpretations about survival rates are for populations and not for an individual patient. The results just give an idea that can be useful for planning treatments and reassurance.