Families Facing Cancer: The Forgotten Priority

Each year, updated statistics are published citing the magnitude of the cancer problem for the American public. Specific cancers are quantified in the thousands, and sweeping graphic representations characterize changing patterns of incidence and mortality. What is not brought routinely to the public’s attention is the prominence of cancer in those Americans who lack a personal diagnosis of a malignancy but suffer the parallel consequences of anxiety, fatigue, depression, insomnia, financial burden, and overwork—the family.