Supportive Care

Survivorship Clinic

New treatment options and innovative cancer therapies are helping cancer patients to live healthy lives long after their cancer has been cured. The growing number of cancer survivors requires new resources and healthcare specialists to care for the special concerns cancer survivors may have, including medical, social, and emotional worries. The Survivorship Clinic is the first dedicated, multidisciplinary resource for adult cancer survivors in the State of Connecticut to provide patients and their families with vital information on cancer prevention, wellness, supportive services, and the latest health research related to cancer survivorship.

Support Groups for caregivers and those with:

Brain Tumor
Caregivers
Lung Cancer
Multiple Myeloma
Stem Cell Transplant

Breast Cancer
Gastrointestinal Cancers
Metastatic Melanoma
Prostate Cancer
Shoreline Patient and Family

Palliative Care Program

The Palliative Care Service at Smilow Cancer Hospital has been providing comprehensive interdisciplinary care to patients and their families since October 2007. The service, directed by Jennifer Kapo, MD, focuses on symptom management and quality of life issues for adult patients with serious chronic progressive or terminal illnesses.

Smoking Cessation

There are many obstacles to face when helping people quit smoking. Smoking can be a very strong habit that involves the potent drug nicotine, but is a very important lifestyle change, especially for patients undergoing cancer treatment. It is critical that cancer patients quit smoking after initial diagnosis, as this has been shown to positively impact response to treatments (therapeutic radiology, chemotherapy, surgery), decrease the likelihood that patients will develop second malignancies, and increase rates of survival. Motivational factors often come into play because people receive satisfaction from smoking, and in many cases have been smoking since youth.

Oncodermatologic Service

Dr. Jennifer Choi, Assistant Professor of Dermatology, leads the Yale Oncodermatology Clinic at Smilow Cancer Hospital. The purpose of the clinic is to serve the dermatologic needs of cancer patients. Such issues include very dry skin, itching, skin changes as side effects from chemotherapy including rashes, nail and hair changes, skin infections, cancer involvement of the skin, radiation dermatitis, and other changes due to radiation. In addition, Dr. Choi specializes in caring for patients with skin cancer, including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, beginning with rigorous skin screening examinations to detect skin cancers and sun damage and optimize prevention and therapy.

Cardio-Oncology Program

Dr. Kerry Russell and Dr. Raymond Russell, both Associate Professors of Medicine in Cardiology, co-direct the Cardio-Oncology Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. The program is designed to help address the cardio-toxic side effects of chemotherapy treatment, as well as the confounding problem of co-existing cardiac disease and cancer. The Program also provides pre-surgical and pre-treatment cardiac evaluation for patients with cancer.