Beyond the Pink: Turning Breast Cancer Awareness to Action With Kisha Cummings, Megan-Claire Chase, and Jasmin Hundal, MD, MS, MPH

Communication at Diagnosis

Both Ms. Chase and Ms. Cummings reflected on how first oncology encounters often feel rushed and densely packed with jargon, leaving patients adrift even when they have medical backgrounds. Because Ms. Cummings was a nurse, her doctor didn’t explain the details of her diagnosis to her, assuming that she already understood, although oncology wasn’t her specialty. Ms. Chase emphasized the need for clinicians to reset their assumptions at the outset of treatment.

Practical strategies include asking patients how they prefer information delivered, using plain language and teach‑back, and offering structured written summaries. Sensitive, time‑dependent topics also merit protected space; as Ms. Chase noted, fertility was presented to her amid a deluge of many tough decisions—“I was told, ‘You’ll need 16 rounds of chemo, oh, and do you want to freeze your eggs?’ She didn’t take a breath”—highlighting the need to schedule dedicated conversations rather than compress them into a single overwhelmed visit. Proactive next‑day follow‑up by a navigator or oncology social worker can help patients process options once the initial shock subsides.

Early, Proactive Survivorship Planning

A consistent theme was the sensation of being “dropped” once acute treatment ended. Ms. Cummings recounted that after a cascade of surgeries and visits during 2020, “It all started dwindling down and then I just started not seeing anyone. It was like I went through a divorce. I had to take a lot of things into my own hands.”

Ms. Chase echoed the systemic gap: “We need more dollars for the newly diagnosed, we need more dollars for our metastatic breast cancer community, and we really need more dollars invested into survivorship and how to help improve our quality of life. It can be hard seeing these commercials where everyone’s smiling after their treatment, and you’re still in pain and didn’t bounce back.”

Clinicians can counter this by building survivorship into planning from the beginning: auto‑refer to physical therapy and prehabilitation before surgery and chemotherapy, involve cardio‑oncology when cardiotoxic regimens are used, and connect patients early to nutrition, mental health, pain/supportive oncology, and sexual/menopause care. Survivorship care plans should outline late effects, monitoring intervals, and clear points of contact. This is essential because, as Ms. Cummings put it, “You think I’m okay because my labs are good, and thank God for me continuously being in remission, but I’m not good. I wish that they would focus more on preventative care for us—a whole treatment plan starting when you are diagnosed and trying to prevent some of these known side effects beforehand.”

Mental Health, Cognitive Effects, and Body Image

The conversation brought forward the psychological and cognitive toll of cancer care—anxiety, depression, chemo brain, and profound shifts in identity and body image. Ms. Chase highlighted a scarcity of specialists who truly understand oncology contexts. Ms. Cummings described seeking help but being told “they didn’t have anybody in the breast cancer space,” illustrating the need for care teams to include therapists who specialize in cancer patients. Incorporating mental health screening at intervals and building referral networks to oncology‑informed therapists—including telehealth options—are key steps.

Body image should also be addressed early and directly. Ms. Chase recounted asking when her scars would disappear, only to be told, “these scars are forever,” a realization that can be jarring without anticipatory guidance. Navigation to sexual health, pelvic floor physical therapy (PT), and menopause clinics are vital, as well as deliberate counseling on symptoms, sexual function, and bone health.

Holistic and Integrative Care Without Stigma

Patients value integrative approaches but often encounter stigma or coverage barriers. Ms. Cummings urged clinicians to “not make us feel ashamed about the holistic route; just because you don’t know about holistic methods, don’t throw it by the wayside.” A constructive approach includes asking openly about supplements and practices, reviewing safety and interactions, and offering evidence‑based options such as acupuncture, mindfulness, yoga, and exercise, while proactively sharing coverage and grant information.

Clinic design can also support integrative goals; as Cummings said, “You’d be surprised how much more receptive the body is when it’s relaxed,” advocating for dimmable lights, noise control, warm blankets, and optional music or guided meditation to ease infusion‑related anxiety. She has translated these principles locally by assembling “Thrive Boxes” for newly diagnosed patients, including comfort items and curated resource lists, a model that clinics could adopt to reduce anxiety and support self‑management. As she put it, these simple steps help patients feel seen and can make treatment more tolerable.

Equity, Representation, and Trust

The conversation highlighted the downstream consequences of underrepresentation in research and care design for Black patients and other marginalized groups. “We’re sometimes walking clinical trials. Some medications didn’t have enough representation of people that look like us when they were studied,” Chase noted, connecting inclusivity directly to safety and efficacy. Clinicians can help narrow these gaps by discussing clinical trials with attention to logistics, compensation, and trust; partnering with community advocates; tracking outcomes by race/ethnicity; and addressing structural barriers like transportation, childcare, and financial toxicity. Embedding patient advocates in program design and quality improvement can ensure solutions reflect lived realities.

Policy and Systems: Financing the Lived Reality of Survivorship

Sustainable change requires financing supportive services that patients actually need. Expanding coverage for evidence‑based integrative care, cardio‑oncology, fertility preservation, menopause and sexual health, and oncology‑informed mental health would align benefits with outcomes patients value. Navigation, financial counseling, and social work should be treated as core services rather than optional add‑ons. Tying survivorship processes and patient‑reported outcomes to value‑based metrics and accreditation can further normalize comprehensive care. As Dr. Hundal concluded, “As much as we need treatment advancements, we also need to take care of our patients after they receive the treatment.”

Key Takeaways

• Diagnosis communication should begin by clarifying preferences, using plain language, and scheduling proactive follow‑up; sensitive topics like fertility deserve protected time.
• Survivorship planning belongs at diagnosis, with auto‑referrals to PT/prehab, cardio‑oncology when indicated, nutrition, mental health, pain/supportive care, and sexual/menopause services, all captured in a clear survivorship plan.
• Mental health is integral to cancer care; normalize discussing cognitive and mood symptoms, screen routinely, and refer to oncology‑informed therapists while addressing body image and sexual health.
• Integrative care is valued and should be offered without stigma; address insurance barriers and optimize clinic environments to reduce anxiety and improve treatment tolerance.
• Improve equity by increasing representation in research and trials, mitigate structural barriers, and partner with community advocates to ensure programs reflect lived experience.
• Fertility and menopause counseling require explicit pathways and realistic expectations about scars, body changes, and long‑term effects.
• Fund navigation, financial counseling, integrative services, and survivorship infrastructure to match the realities patients face after treatment, translating awareness into measurable improvements in quality of life.

About the Speakers

Kisha Cummings is a 5-year triple-negative breast cancer thriver. She is a former registered nurse and has become a breast cancer patient advocate. She has been instrumental in cancer care policy advocacy, including lobbying in Capitol Hill, working with Emory University’s BRIDGE Breast Cancer Disparities Community Forum, and attending the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Megan-Claire Chase is a patient advocate and the Breast Cancer Program Director for SHARE Cancer Support. As a survivor of stage IIA invasive lobular breast cancer, Ms. Chase became involved in patient advocacy work after completing her treatment. She is a prolific writer, blogger, and public speaker, having been featured in the New York Times, in People Magazine, and on PBS’s “Beyond Cancer” episode of “Stories from the Stage.” Her story and work are documented in her blog “Life on the Cancer Train.”

Jasmin Hundal, MD, MS, MPH, is a third-year Hematology/Oncology Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Previously, she completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Hundal’s main area of interest is the overlap between cardiometabolic health and cancer, particularly for breast cancer patients and survivors. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and hiking.