Cancer support

A constant point of contact to help coordinate care, answer questions and remove barriers.

Provides information about how inherited conditions might affect you or your family. After collecting your personal and family history, our genetics counselors guide you through the process and help you understand if genetic testing will be impactful to you or a family member.

A hospital-based resource to guide through insurance benefits and potential financial liability for cancer care. These individuals are the patient’s point of contact for financial assistance questions and resources for those with insurance needs.

Meet with patients and families to assess needs, provide emotional support and help people access home health and practical assistance, including wigs, transportation, organizational support and community resources.

Helps patients understand their treatment path, recover from treatments or surgeries and guide them to live their highest quality of life after a cancer diagnosis.

Cancer can impact how you move and feel about movement and your ability to carry out desired activities. Cancer rehabilitation takes on a personalized approach that helps you improve the physical and functional side effects that you may experience after cancer.

A cancer rehabilitation therapist may utilize exercise, hands-on treatments, and other specialized tools to help improve your strength, function, fatigue and many side effects such as pain, stiffness, imbalance, difficulty walking, swelling, chemo brain and more. We offer many specialized rehab therapies, including physical, occupational, speech-language pathology, lymphedema and pelvic floor.

Rehabilitation before surgery or treatment, known as pre-rehabilitation, has been shown to improve outcomes, so we encourage you to start as early as possible.

Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute at HCA Midwest Health is the only cancer support program in Kansas City to offer a lung prehab program for those newly diagnosed with lung cancer. Talk with your healthcare provider for a referral to cancer rehabilitation, to access our patient lung prehab educational packet and for assistance with implementing a program specific for you.

*Services may not be available onsite at all facilities. Talk with a cancer support team member for other available resources.

Nutrition is essential in keeping yourself healthy during and after cancer treatment. Think of the foods you eat as tools you can use to help lessen treatment-related side effects and promote healing. A healthy eating plan is also helpful for maintaining your weight in cancer survivorship.

Our cancer-focused nutrition experts guide patients through eating strategies to remain nourished during and after treatment. They can answer questions on specific nutrients or diets, so they feel empowered in what they should do.

Our registered dietitians provide counseling and advice based on your individual nutrition needs. For your convenience, we offer both in-person and phone consultations.

In addition to the resources our hospitals provide, there are also many other opportunities to find the cancer support and education you need. Resources we recommend include:

• American Cancer Society
• Cancer.net
• Cancer Action in Kansas City
• Gilda's Club Kansas City
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society/Light the Night Walk^®
• Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
• Sarah Cannon blog
• Triage Cancer

Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute at HCA Midwest Health is accredited by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) as a quality program. This means our hospitals exceed the quality care standards set out by the CoC and consistently provide excellence in patient-centered care.