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MetaCancer Foundation Announces $12,000 Grant for Truman Oncology Resources
Aug 10, 2006

The MetaCancer Foundation announced today a $12,000 grant to Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill in Kansas City to purchase equipment and materials for the benefit of cancer patients, including metastatic cancer patients, in Truman's Oncology Clinic and Patient Navigator program.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb422073.htm

Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) August 10, 2006 -- The MetaCancer Foundation announced today a $12,000 grant to Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill in Kansas City to purchase equipment and materials for the benefit of cancer patients, including metastatic cancer patients, in Truman's Oncology Clinic and Patient Navigator program.

“We are very pleased to be able to support TMC’s Patient Navigator Program,” said Dr. Edward J. Prostic, a member of the Board of Directors of the MetaCancer Foundation, and a volunteer orthopedic surgeon for Truman's orthopedic clinic. As Prostic's wife Merry explained, "the grant is in honor and memory of our beloved daughter Elizabeth. We hope to ease the emotional and physical ordeal of the chemotherapy process and help to make it more tolerable."

These resources will be used by patients for educational purposes and for making chemotherapy sessions more bearable. Funds will be used to purchase a computer workstation, a TV/DVD system on a rolling cart, and educational DVDs to be maintained in the Patient Navigator office. In addition, the Center will be able to purchase CD and DVD players, along with CDs and DVDs, for use by chemotherapy patients in the Oncology Clinic.

“Many of our patients do not have access to the Internet and other materials to help educate them about their illness,” said Dr. Jill Moormeier. “This support from the MetaCancer Foundation helps our patients to better understand their disease and treatment options, which ultimately gives them confidence in the decisions they are making regarding their care.”

The Truman Oncology Clinic treats as many as ten chemotherapy patients each day, in half-day or full-day sessions. Two or three patients share a room and a single television. The long chemotherapy sessions can be uncomfortable and boring. Some patients read, but sometimes reading skills are limited or it is difficult to concentrate. The audio/visual materials funded by The MetaCancer Foundation will be focused on guided imagery, meditation, biofeedback, or simple entertainment: whatever will make the chemotherapy time more tolerable and useful.

TMC Hospital Hill cancer patient Paul Koonze says the materials provided by this grant will help in his treatment. “Having these materials will be a big benefit in my treatment. It will help to keep me calm, to keep my mind occupied on something other than my disease.”

TMC Hospital Hill is a key “safety net” health care provider in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2004 Truman personnel diagnosed and treated 479 cancer patients, of whom 184 had metastatic cancer. Patients seeking care at Truman are uninsured and under-insured far more often than patients at other hospitals, and household income is far below the city’s median.
       
About The MetaCancer Foundation

The mission of The MetaCancer Foundation is to provide inspiration and support for patients and caregivers confronting metastatic cancers. While cancer can begin anywhere in the body, it is designated as "metastatic" once it spreads to locations distant from the original tumor. Many non-profit organizations are dedicated to specific kinds of cancer defined by the primary tumor, but very few focus on cancer that has metastasized.

Metastatic cancers are often considered to be incurable or terminal, but The MetaCancer Foundation encourages patients and caregivers to "go meta": to think about how one is confronting cancer and how one can positively construct that experience. MetaCancer encourages dialogue among those with very different types of metastatic cancer (breast, prostate, colorectal, ovarian, bladder/urinary, skin, lung, and others), even though respective treatment protocols and medical issues may seem to have little in common with each other. The common factor, unfortunately, is cure rates that are dramatically lower than the cure rates for early-stage or localized cancers. The psychological and emotional impact of this fact means that metastatic patients and caregivers can have more in common with others confronting metastatic cancers, regardless of where they started, than with someone facing an early stage of the same type of cancer.

The MetaCancer Foundation is committed to addressing these unique needs and concerns. Other MetaCancer initiatives include its innovative website www.metacancer.org, funding for online support groups, and Research Grants and Resource Rooms in memory of Elizabeth Anne Prostic. More information on these grants is available at www.metacancer.org.
       
The MetaCancer Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Tax-deductible donations can be mailed to The MetaCancer Foundation, 11 North Washington Street, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20850.

About Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill

Quality, compassion, technology and innovation are at the heart of Truman Medical Center Hospital Hill. Part of Truman Medical Centers, TMC Hospital Hill is the largest provider of outpatient care in     Kansas City and has one of the top Level 1 trauma centers in the area. Recently named one of the nations’ top academic medical centers, TMC is the primary teaching hospital for the University of Missouri-Kansas City Schools of Health Sciences and specializes in asthma, bariatrics, diabetes, women’s health, and trauma services. For more information, visit www.trumed.org.

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