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UPSTREAM ADVOCACY: ADDRESSING CANCER
SURVIVORS' EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS THROUGH
MEDICAL-LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS
Barbara Hoffman*
INTRODUCTION
As cancer survival rates rise and quality of life outcomes are factored
into cancer care, more cancer survivors are participating in the
workforce.' Most cancer survivors want to continue working during their
treatment; many whose cancer restricts their ability to work want to
return to work as soon as possible.2 They are motivated not only by the
need to earn income, but also by a desire to preserve self-esteem, to
maintain a routine, and to be productive.'
Hodges identifies one of the non-medical consequences of cancer
survivors living more productively during cancer treatment, living
longer after cancer treatment, and living with cancer as a chronic illness:
employment problems that implicate legal issues.4 As she points out, the
reasons for and the nature of cancer survivors' employment problems
have been the subject of an increasing number of studies that focus on
the impact of cancer on quality of life.5 Hodges also correctly recognizes
that the employment problems faced by cancer survivors are experienced
* Barbara Hoffman is a member of the Rutgers Law School faculty. She is a co-founder of the
National Cancer Legal Services Network and of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.
1. See Catherine M. Alfano & Julia H. Rowland, Recovery Issues in Cancer Survivorship: A New
Challenge for Supportive Care, 12 CANCER J. 432, 436 (2006).
2. See Press Release, Cancer & Careers, Newly Released Survey Reveals the Majority of Cancer
Patients and Survivors Want to Continue Working, but Need a Little Help Doing So (March 5,
2013) [hereinafter Cancer Patients Survey], http://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/2012-survey/2012-
survey-press-release [https://perma.cc/JX8Q-S724].
3. See id.
4. Ann C. Hodges, Working with Cancer: How the Law Can Help Survivors Maintain
Employment, 90 WASH. L. REV. 1039, 1041-42.
5. See, e.g., Michael Feuerstein et al., Work in Cancer Survivors: A Model for Practice and
Research, 4 J. CANCER SURVIVORSHIP 415 (2010).
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