The authors present a case demonstrating the unique and complex challenges facing patients with head and neck cancers, public health interventions to reduce risk, and available screening to promote early detection.

Along the continuum of cancer care for many patient populations, navigators play an essential role in community outreach and prevention. To be effective, navigators must have core knowledge of the early signs of cancer, and the current screening guidelines, as well as the available community and state resources for screening and diagnostics.

It is a fact that in most households the woman makes the decisions regarding healthcare for her loved ones. This includes nudging her husband to get his blood pressure checked, or taking the children to the pediatrician to get their vaccines and other medical care.

We had a great conference! Each year it gets better and better— the content more enriched, the number of attendees steadily growing, and the ability to take home to your cancer facilities the valuable information you learned. It is important to dissect the key teaching points and share them with others.

This happens nearly every day, doesn’t it? A newly diagnosed patient with cancer wants to know the odds of living through and beyond his or her cancer treatment. It doesn’t matter if we tell patients that we hope they live a long time and not to focus on stats; they focus on them anyway. But when it comes to statistics, there are some important facts for nurse navigators to consider.

Cancer care is the most costly medical expense people face in the United States. Historically, insurance companies covered the majority of cancer treatment expenses; however, that is now changing. More financial burden is and will be placed on the patient, making it more challenging than ever to receive the appropriate care one needs to rid them of their disease.

Although the requirements to provide a cancer survivor a treatment summary and survivorship care plan have been in place for several years, with 2015 being the required timeframe for officially demonstrating that these medical records are being provided, most institutions are still not ready.

As navigators, we must look after ourselves and our families and be proactive in helping patients get the most for their coverage. Navigators become experts at assessing coverage and benefits for patients.

We never want to think about the reality that our patients dealing with advanced cancers are going to eventually die of their disease or from the toxicities of its treatment. But they will. Commonly today there is avoidance on the part of treating physicians, generally medical oncologists, to embark on a discussion about end of life planning.