Would recommend this to anyone dealing with ovarian cancer in any way.
The counseling is specific to people experiencing ovarian cancer
in a way that makes you feel both understood and supported.
— Participant —
The Clearity Foundation
Clearity believes that all women deserve the best possible therapies for their unique disease and the best possible emotional support for their unique life challenges.
Founded in 2008 by scientist and survivor Laura Shawver, Ph.D., Clearity Foundation seeks to revolutionize the ovarian cancer experience.
Our goal is to support physical and emotional health to improve the survival and quality of life of women with ovarian cancer. We give hope to women with ovarian cancer and their families.
To achieve this, we:
Share the latest information on treatment options
Help women access the most useful and comprehensive tests to better understand the molecular profile of their cancer
Guide women to clinical trials where appropriate
Offer professional emotional support and educational resources to women and caregivers
Provide an online community with information and social support.
All of Clearity’s services are provided free of charge. We believe all patients should have access to the most advanced care, personalized for them, regardless of their ability to pay.
Clearity’s Friends and Founders events are a unique opportunity for our supporters to hear directly from our ovarian cancer experts, including a live Q&A.
Recordings from the past two events are available below.
“Why Do I Feel Like This?”
This focuses on the emotional impacts of a cancer diagnosis, exploring how a person diagnosed with cancer may face seemingly opposite emotions, such as feeling hopeful yet fearful or surrounded by family yet lonely.
Clearity’s experts, Susan Hess, Director of Education and KrisAnn Talarico, Director of OC Counseling, share things to keep in mind when emotions don’t make sense and ways to support the person diagnosed and their loved ones.
“The Scientific Landscape of Current and Promising Ovarian Cancer Treatment”
This is your opportunity to hear the latest from Anne Mette Buhl, PhD, our Director of Science & Clinical Trials and Dr. Ramez Eskander, our Chief Scientific and Medical Advisor. In fact, Dr. Eskander shares the very latest after recently attending the ASCO Annual Meeting!
You will also hear about Clearity’s ambitious future plans from our Executive Director, Hillary Theakston.
We invite you to settle in and read, watch and/or listen to the latest information about the ovarian cancer experience.
READ: The Clearity Blog – with articles on recent ovarian cancer news and research, such as:
“Stress Induced Immune Changes May Help Cancer Spread”
“Women’s Cancers: Clinicians Research, Advise on Sexual Dysfunction”
“New Microbiome Insights Could Help Boost Immunotherapy For A Range Of Rare Cancers”
WATCH: Friends and Founders Webinar Series – each session offers new perspectives on the chosen topic, ranging from the latest ovarian cancer research to conversations about managing the impact of this diagnosis on people’s day-to-day lives, such as:
“What We Learned at The Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting” with Dr. Ramez Eskander, MD, Chief Scientific Advisor and Dr. Anne Mette Buhl, PhD, Director of Science and Clinical Trials
“Let’s Talk About Purpose: A Conversation About The Search For Joy And Meaning” with experts and friends of Clearity Karin Blair and Buck Dodson
LISTEN: Cancer Connections podcast –the podcast for anyone who has been impacted by a cancer diagnosis or is interested in learning from others who have. Here are a few of our most popular:
“The Link Between Stress and Cancer” with Dr. Gabor Maté
“Can a Conversation About Death Bring Joy?” with Dr. BJ Miller
How to Increase the Peace: “Whole Brain Living” with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
Psychosocial Support: Steps Through OC
Clearity believes that all women and active caregivers deserve compassionate and professional emotional support while managing an ovarian cancer diagnosis. To this end, Clearity offers the Steps Through OC program for ovarian cancer psychosocial support.
This personalized, one-to-one assistance helps individuals manage the stress and coping associated with their diagnosis. The program offers ten sessions of professional support over the course of six months to both patients/survivors and active caregivers as well as educational content, resources and referrals.
Our OC Counselor team does not provide psychotherapy services. Instead, our team provides professional, ovarian cancer-focused support around the emotional experience of the diagnosis. Each OC Counselor has a master’s degree in mental health and offers expert compassionate listening skills, education in coping methods and useful, personalized resources.
Details
The Steps Through OC team is here with comprehensive support to help you, your caregivers and family live a full life while managing ovarian cancer. Wherever you are in your OC experience, we respect your unique situation and the aspects of life you care about most. Through a series of ten individual phone calls or videoconferences, our professional OC Counselors are ready to help understand who you are, how you feel, your concerns, and provide ways to manage your ovarian cancer experience with coping tools, education and resources. Our primary goals are to enhance your self-advocacy, ease your emotional and physical symptoms/side-effects, increase your confidence in treatment decisions, enhance your coping and resilience skills, reduce your stress level, and work toward a personal goal that is important to you in this process. Our recent independent program evaluation showed high participant satisfaction along with statistically significant evidence of: 1) improvement in overall quality of life, 2) improvement in emotional well-being, 3) improvement in functional well-being, 4) perceived stress reductions, and 5) improvements in coping.
https://www.clearityfoundation.org/psychosocial-support/
www.stepsthrough.org
[email protected]
1.866.830.5134
Treatment Decision Support
Every year, more than 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, survival improvements are decades behind other cancers. Clearity is working to change that. Clearity believes that all women deserve the best possible therapies for their unique disease. To achieve this, we:
–Announce the latest treatment options available at new diagnosis, at maintenance, and at recurrence or disease progression
–Explain how tumor testing can reveal the cancer’s molecular profile and suggest possible treatment strategies
–Help identify clinical trials that best suit each woman’s specific situation
If you would like personal one-to-one assistance, our Treatment Decision Support scientific team can help you. Clearity does not provide medical advice about which treatments women should receive. Instead, our staff explains treatment options and tumor testing results and provide potential questions and other information that they can discuss with their physicians.
We aim to help you understand:
–Standard chemotherapy and targeted treatments appropriate for your particular clinical situation
–How your tumor’s characteristics (biomarkers, profile, gene mutations/alterations) can make it more sensitive to certain therapies
–Promising drugs in clinical trials that may be appropriate for you
The Details
Clearity takes a comprehensive hands-on approach to help a women identify the treatments that may work best against her unique disease. Assessing her medical history as well as tumor molecular profiles and other diagnostics, Clearity professionals help each woman and her physicians chart the most advantageous course of treatment. When a treatment decision needs to be made, Clearity provides information about the standard options for each patient’s clinical situation, as well as access to genomic information about her cancer to help inform her decision-making.
Clearity offers Tumor Blueprints which identify the molecular characteristics in a tumor that may be driving its growth and survival. The Blueprint is generated by measuring specific protein biomarkers and genetic variations in a patient’s cancer and linking those findings to potential treatments. The online interactive Tumor Blueprint Report provides results from each patient’s molecular profile, including drugs that match. This profile can help prioritize treatment options already being considered by the clinical team and may also suggest options they have not yet considered, including off-label medicines or drugs being tested in clinical trials. Clearity experts review this information with patients, answer their questions about the results and help them find clinical trials when appropriate. Clearity also offers assistance for women who do not want to get their tumor profiled or have already obtained a tumor profile and want help understanding it. As with those receiving Tumor Blueprints, Clearity can discuss standard of care options and identify appropriate trials.
Clearity does not provide medical advice about which treatments they should receive. Instead, our staff explains Tumor Blueprint results and provides potential questions, and other information that patients can discuss with their physicians.
Advancing Care
Since 2008, Clearity has profiled tumors for hundreds of women. The Clearity database records the results from each woman’s Tumor Blueprint, along with information about the therapies they received and how well they worked. Matching molecular profiles with outcomes provide additional evidence to help guide treatment decisions. Clearity has created a separate data repository that stores privacy-protected clinical and tumor profiling data. As this database grows, it supports research studies and helps Clearity provide more up-to-date information about the therapies being considered by the women and physicians who come to Clearity for support and scientific guidance.
Someone Who Listens
Clearity exists to help women find credible information about their ovarian cancer and the treatments that can help them survive. We are scientists, but we also know that cancer’s impact goes way beyond a clinical diagnosis. Our goal is to understand each patient’s unique priorities and needs. That means long, purposeful discussions informed by both science and compassion.
If you missed the latest Friends and Founders event, don’t worry…the recording is now available!
Let’s Talk About Nutrition: A conversation about the role food plays in living well with ovarian cancer
Guest speaker Erin Pellegrin, RD, LDN, the Director of Culinary Nutrition and Education at the breast and ovarian cancer organization, Unite for HER, presented on this important and perfect-for-January topic.
Erin covers:
- Why nutrition matters for cancer patients, including the risk of malnutrition
- Getting started with 3 P’s – One of them is protein
- The challenges which may arise – Discover strategies to overcome them
Just click below to watch the recording and visit the Resource Page.
Our Friends & Founders webinar series is the chance for a select group of our participants and supporters to spend an hour hearing the latest ideas and information from Clearity staff and expert guests.
Each online session offers new perspectives on the chosen topic, ranging from the latest ovarian cancer research to conversations about managing the impact of this diagnosis on people’s day-to-day lives.
We always allow time for audience members’ questions at the end.
ACCEPTS VIRTUAL CLIENTS
https://www.clearityfoundation.org/treatmentdecisionsupport/
[email protected]
The Clearity Foundation
8880 Rio San Diego
Suite 800
San Diego, CA 92108
(858) 657-0282
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