Financial Toxicity Working Group

  • GROUP Survivorship
  • PROJECT SPAN 2021
  • DATE 01/01/2021

Background

Following the success of a session on Financial Toxicity at the 2020 COSA ASM, we formed a Working Group to address financial toxicity in Australia. Working Group members represent a broad range of expertise from around Australia, including consumers.

Working Group Activities

Initial efforts have focused on understanding the problem – defining financial toxicity and scoping current activities and services. Work is now directed towards seeking solutions and developing innovations to address financial toxicity associated with cancer and its treatment.

Find out more about the Working Group's activities below.

Our Working Group conducted a national survey of practitioners to map current care and support provided to people experiencing financial toxicity, and a paper on this work has now been published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology

Opinions and strategies of Australian health professionals on tackling cancer-related financial toxicity: A nationwide survey
http://doi.org/10.1111/ajco.13786

COSA Council endorsed this definition of financial toxicity:

“The negative patient-level impact of the cost of cancer. It is the combined impact of direct out-of-pocket costs and indirect costs and the changing financial circumstances of an individual and their household due to cancer, its diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and palliation, causing both physical and psychological harms, affecting decisions which can lead to suboptimal cancer outcomes.”

Read our paper

The Working Group led a webinar in December 2021, in collaboration with CNSA, challenging the misconception that nothing can be done to address financial toxicity.

COSA has previously endorsed the Standard for Informed Financial Consent as a key component of delivering quality care (developed by Breast Cancer Network Australia, Cancer Council Australia, CanTeen and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia).

Working Group Chair

Team Image
Ray Chan

Survivorship Group Chair

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