Reflections on the Together for Supportive Cancer Care Summit

By Audrey Haberman, CEO, The Sheri & Les Biller Family Foundation 

We’ve just returned from a powerful and productive gathering in Washington, D.C. with the Together for Supportive Cancer Care coalition. – the second annual Together for Supportive Cancer Care Summit. It was an honor for the Foundation to convene more than 50 leaders and experts deeply committed to making early supportive cancer care a national standard.

Supportive cancer care ensures the unique needs of people with cancer and their caregivers are met throughout the entire journey. It integrates clinical care with physical, emotional, spiritual, economic, and community-based support. This whole-person approach is backed by evidence: it improves outcomes and quality of life while lowering the overall cost of care.

We began the day grounded in patient and caregiver experiences, in a session moderated by Shelley Fuld Nasso, CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), a coalition member and Foundation partner. Some spoke about the gaps and hardships they faced without access to supportive care. Others shared how access to services like nutrition, navigation, and emotional support profoundly impacted their lives. These stories reminded us once again why this work matters.

The rest of the day was spent exploring how we collectively move forward in expanding access to early, ongoing supportive care through federal and state policy, employer engagement, education for both patients and providers, and through data and research that clearly demonstrate the value of this approach. The Foundation presented a new analysis showing that if just 10% more people living with cancer received early supportive care, the annual savings in national healthcare costs would approach $4 billion a year.

In just eight months, this coalition has made tremendous progress. Working with our partners, we have formed workgroups and developed key resources —including an Executive Briefing and a Business Case for supportive care. The coalition is guided by a dedicated steering committee represented by leaders from the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, Cancer Support Community, Purchaser Business Group on Health, TFA Analytics, and NCCS.

While we made substantial headway in advancing ideas and action steps, equally important was the spirit in the room—generosity, connection, and shared purpose.  It is due to the years of work of many of the coalition’s members that we are now building on to make even more meaningful change. We are grateful to all of our partners, their critical work, and their shared mission.