Bassett takes steps to help cancer survivors

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January 11, 2012

By Michelle Miller Staff Writer The Daily Star Wed Jan 11, 2012, 02:30 AM EST

COOPERSTOWN _ When President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, there were about 3 million cancer survivors in the country.

Dr. James Leonardo, chief of oncology at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, said there are more than 12 million survivors today.

To better help local survivors recover, the Bassett Cancer Institute has invested in becoming STAR Program Certified, and the kick-off was in the Clark Auditorium on Tuesday. "STAR" stands for "survivorship training and rehabilitation."

Through the program, Bassett providers who work with cancer patients have been trained in the latest oncology rehabilitation care, a media release said, and they are implementing research-based processes.

Under the STAR program, each patient's needs are assessed and a personalized rehabilitation plan developed, Leonardo said. The plan pulls in medical specialists from different disciplines such as physicians, physical and occupational therapists, speech pathologists, dietitians and mental health professionals.

"The STAR program was started as a way to help meet those (unique) needs and as a way to provide us as caretakers with guidelines and a pathway for the right way to do it," Leonardo said.

Diane Stokes, co-founder of Oncology Rehab Partners LLC, said while cancer treatment can be life-saving, it can also be traumatic.

"Survivors are often left debilitated after lifesaving treatments that they receive," she said. "Cancer rehab helps them to get back to being the best mothers, fathers, spouses, workers that they can be."

STAR Program Certification was created by Dr. Julie Silver, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a breast cancer survivor who could not accept that the changes to her body and life caused by cancer and its treatment would be her "new normal."

Stokes said survivors are often told to accept a "new normal" too soon and are told to go back to work when they still face fatigue and other issues.

The Beacon of Light fund at Bassett Healthcare Network provided seed money for local STAR Program Certification.

Dr. William Streck, Bassett chief executive officer, said the STAR program fits with the history of excellence at Bassett that goes back to the 1950s because the Bassett Cancer Program has been accredited since 1956.

"The reason it has been accredited is because we have had some extraordinary physicians and staff in the institute over all these decades," Streck said during the kick-off event. "That work continues today."