A new decision making guide helps Canadians newly diagnosed with melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer to understand their choices post-diagnosis, including fertility options.
A melanoma or skin cancer diagnosis can be a very unsettling experience for patients. In addition to dealing with the shock of the diagnosis, they face numerous decisions over the upcoming weeks and months for which they require information. As a result, they’ll have many questions for their family physicians and oncologists on factors like disease stage, prognosis, treatment options, risks, side effects, insurance coverage, quality of life, caregiving needs, genetic testing, and fertility preservation.
There’s a lot of ground to cover considering many healthcare providers have as little as 15 minutes to spend with their patients per visit. The decision making guide helps patients who may feel too rushed or overwhelmed remember to ask critical questions or have difficult conversations during their appointments.
Decision making guide supports Canadians
Save Your Skin Foundation has developed a new decision-making guide to help newly diagnosed cancer patients with non-melanoma skin cancers, melanoma, and ocular melanoma navigate their options and make the most out of their conversations with their health care providers.
The guide covers important early-appointment discussion topics from both patient and physician perspectives, such as the care plan, treatment timeline, financial considerations, quality of life, and logistical considerations. It includes tear-away checklists for both patients and physicians to ensure a clear record of treatment decisions, as well as a symptom management log, appointment tracking sheets, and space for both parties to take notes. There’s also a section dedicated to fertility preservation options, which is an important topic to women of childbearing age.
Using this guide to prepare questions in advance will help patients to make the most out of their limited time with their health care provider, learn all their options, and feel more in control during their cancer journey.
To learn more about Save Your Skin Foundation or if you need support, visit saveyourskin.ca.
