Protocol Reform

RACE Charities places a high emphasis on getting the word out to physicians and health care administrators to understand the importance of including one’s own family history of cancer on patient check-in forms and medical consultation. Currently, patients entering a hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office are required to fill out what seems like a sea of different forms, documents, and paperwork requiring a wide range of different medical background history. Why then wouldn’t such forms and preliminary documentation require the inquiry of family history pertaining to cancer? With a greater level of promotion emphasising the requirement for additional background information, forms processing, and consultation, the medical community would be more in tune with better information regarding the approach to treating patients who have a family history of cancer.

Once this has been established and physicians have more awareness and information to work with, better decision making protocols and safety nets can be put into place that stress ULTRA concern and HIGH emphasis on expanded tests and measures available to help detect cancer early-on.

Preliminary tests and methods exist that normally wouldn’t be ordered if the family history of cancer wasn’t prevalent and therefore considered an important part of treating certain patients, no matter how small the symptoms, aches, or pains might be, especially in younger patients between the ages of 15 to 35. The relation between migraine headaches and brain cancer in teenagers or the link between constipation and abnormal stomach pains with colon cancer in young people are just a couple of the many examples of how the advancement of early detection can help catch cancer early-on and save thousands of lives in the process.

In Glory's words-

If just one life is saved, the sacrifices we all make will be worth it.

-Glorianna Gensch (June 2007)