315. What's Missing in Breast Cancer Care? | Special Edition Roundtable

Love the podcast? Send us a text! A breast cancer diagnosis brings far more than medical decisions. There are emotional challenges, treatment side effects, financial pressures, questions about clinical trials, and the ongoing need for trusted information and community. Yet many of these needs fall outside the traditional healthcare system. So who's filling those gaps? And how can we make sure people diagnosed with breast cancer can find the right resources when they need them? In this special roundtable episode of Breast Cancer Conversations , host Laura Carfang, co-founder and CEO of SurvivingBreastCancer.org, brings together three leaders from national breast cancer nonprofits: • Ellen Friebert Schupper , CEO of ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, an organization specializing in personalized, one-to-one emotional support. • Kelly Shanahan, MD , President of METAvivor, an organization dedicated to metastatic breast cancer research, advocacy, and community. • Sue Weldon , Founder and CEO of Unite for HER, an organization expanding access to integrative therapies and whole-person care. Together, they explore an important reality: No single organization can meet every need of someone diagnosed with breast cancer. The conversation moves beyond individual programs to examine the larger ecosystem of breast cancer support, including where patients continue to fall through the cracks and what it will take to build a more connected, accessible, and sustainable system of care. Kelly shares her experience living with metastatic breast cancer, the urgency of funding research, and why people with advanced disease need better access to clinical trials and specialized care. Sue discusses the role of integrative oncology in supporting quality of life, why these services remain financially out of reach for many patients, and how partnerships with cancer centers can expand access. Ellen explains why personalized peer support remains essential and how collaboration between organizations can help people find trusted resources without navigating a fragmented system. Laura also brings her perspective as both someone diagnosed with breast cancer and a nonprofit CEO, reflecting on the challenges of building sustainable programs, prioritizing limited resources, and addressing needs that traditional cancer care may overlook. In this episode, we discuss: • Why breast cancer care needs to extend beyond medical treatment • The importance of peer support, community, and emotional well-being • Gaps in access to integrative oncology and supportive care • Why metastatic breast cancer research and advocacy remain critical • The need for better clinical trial navigation and access to specialists • Financial barriers and disparities in breast cancer care • How nonprofits, healthcare providers, and industry can work together • Why nonprofit collaboration matters more than duplicating services • The realities of funding and sustaining patient support programs • What the future of breast cancer support could look like One of the most powerful themes throughout this conversation is that better breast cancer care requires more than better treatments. It requires connecting people to the information, services, and support that make living with and beyond a diagnosis more manageable. Whether you're newly diagnosed, living with metastatic breast cancer, navigating life after treatment, supporting a loved one, or working in cancer care, this conversation offers a broader perspective on the resources available today—and the work still ahead. Explore the organizations featured in this episode: SurvivingBreastCancer.org — <a href='https://www