Lost in Translation: Cancer Care’s Growing Health Literacy Crisis

Fact checked by: Christina Mattina, Tracy Ann Politowicz

An NCCN Policy Summit webinar on May 7 warned that cancer care is failing patients, as poor health literacy, misinformation, and digital overload widen gaps in understanding.

At a moment when nearly 9 in 10 Americans struggle to process complex medical information, the arrival of a cancer diagnosis can often trigger a secondary crisis: a total breakdown in comprehension. With close to 40% of women and men in the US expected to receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime and 18.6 million cancer survivors currently navigating the health system,^1,2 the gap between what providers say and what patients understand has real consequences for treatment adherence, clinical outcomes, and trust.