IN GOOD COMPANY?

       "I did not want the rest of my company to know," says one colon cancer survivor, after he told his CEO. "But as you know, COMPANY SECRETS LEAK OUT over time."

       LIVESTRONG is among the organizations that have achieved the CEO Gold Standard rating. Other firms that have been cited for inclusion are Aetna, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Li Destri Foods, State Farm, U.S. Oncology, and the Wistar Institute, to name just a few. Quest Diagnostics, considered the world leader in medical diagnostic testing and services, won the designation this spring. In response to a question from LIVESTRONG Quarterly, Surya Mohapatra, M.D., the CEO of Quest Diagnostics, explains how he and his firm see real value in reaching out to survivors and caregivers in the workplace, and more specifically to those on his payroll.

       "In 2005, we made a formal commitment to the health and wellness of our more than 40,000 U.S. employees and their families through our HealthyQuest wellness program," he says. "At the heart of this program is our Blueprint for Wellness service, whichprovides employees and spouses or partners a comprehensive health risk assessment. It includes a panel of up to 30 tests, including screenings for prostate and colon cancer."

       This last component is the missing link in so many corporate wellness programs today. What's more, Quest and other Gold Standard designated firms share the costs of the screenings, fitness programs, or both with their employees.

       "The feedback we have received," Dr. Mohapatra says, "has been extremely positive and heartfelt, whether we helped find cancer early, or enabled [employees] to lose weight or stop smoking. Healthy, motivated employees are more productive today, and they strengthen a company's workforce for tomorrow, creating business power and advantage."

       In Nelson's case, a small group of volunteer coworkers met with him every Wednesday (unsolicited) to see how things were going and what they might do to help him out at home an at the office.

       Meantime, survivors and their families outside the CEO Gold Standard umbrella often quickly learn of a few key laws and acronyms that may help with transitions on the job. The first, commonly known in employment circles is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has been in place since the 1990s. In a few key areas, the ADA helps the outlook for cancer survivors improve when they apply for or return to a job. As the cancer survivor population continues to grow (12 million Americans are now living with cancer), employers will continue to recognize that millions of cancer survivors can and do return to productive careers after treatment.

SAFETY IN NUMBERS?

       "The biggest role the Americans with Disabilities Act plays for cancer survivors going back to work is it discourages discrimination in the first place," says Barbara Hoffman, an attorney with the National Council on Cancer Survivorship and one of the leading authorities in the U.S. on the employment rights of cancer survivors.

       When Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October, 1996, he didn't have health insurance in place. While he didn't suffer outright "discrimination in the workplace" due to his diagnosis, he found himself in an unusual place: casting about for a "team." An insurer. He was "lucky," he says, that one of his sponsors, Oakley eyewear, threatened to move its health insurance business elsewhere if the firm's health insurer didn't step up and insure Lance. "Without their help, I might not be alive today," Lance has said.

       For Nelson, his feelings of being alone and fears of being shunned at work faded as his support at the office seemed to grow.. "My advice for others is: Do not change your daily routine. Try to remain independent. If you exercise, do not stop [though you'll obviously need to back off your personal best a bit]. Since your mind and body have been doing the 'work routine' thing for years, it is the simplest item you can maintain when you're feeling at your worst."

       As for Ambraziunas, turns out she got the job. And perhaps more important, as a breast cancer survivor and therapist who formerly counseled domestic abuse victims, she gets the job, as a volunteer coordinator serving families hit suddenly by cancer or other lifethreatening conditions. Her survivorship status may not have won her the job. But in retrospect she can say it certainly enhanced her value to her employer, and even more importantly, to her survivor clients every day. Sometimes things work out.

A CORPORATE CANCER PEDIGREE

The CEO Cancer Gold Standard finds value investing in employees.

       FOR FIRMS THAT TRADITIONALLY HAVE CUT costs to boost profits, earning an esteemed, CEO Cancer Gold Standard accreditation hasn't always come easily. First, because spending corporate cash on such employee benefits as nutrition counseling and fitness programs can seem counterintuitive to financial officers (at least initially). And second, because widely accepted metrics to gauge "good health" and "cancer-free lifestyle" haven't yet been developed.

       Over time, though, and with forwardthinking advice and from the nation's CEO Roundtable on Cancer—a nonprofit group of leading executives intent on growing the good health of employees nationwide— cancer prevention has become a worthy player in human resources planning, longterm cost savings, and in providing social benefit or social profits.

       As Martin J. Murphy, M.D., chairman of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer and chairman and CEO of Alpha Med consulting told LIVESTRONG Quarterly: "Cancer is intolerable; we each have to do something to fight it to the extent possible that we can. It's the next obligation we have.

       "You know," Dr. Murphy adds, "I was sitting for three hours this morning with the CEO of one of America's largest organizations. I've got a FORTUNE 500 company pin on my lapel; he's got a FORTUNE 500 company lapel pin on as well. And right there we were wearing—on our wrists—LIVESTRONG wristbands."

       One of the most powerful recent means of improving cancer care and prevention among employees made news in a January 2010 release about a potential colon cancer breakthrough. Quest Diagnostics, a recent CEO Cancer Gold Standard designee, announced that a new DNA-based diagnostic blood test for colon cancer markers would soon be available as part of its wide-ranging employee preventive health programs. It isn't meant to replace the colonoscopy. It's just a new first step.

       How does it work? A vial of the subject's blood is collected; the test then attempts to match changes in DNA in the Septin9 gene to alterations that have been linked with colon cancer in past studies. (But the test does not promise, yet, to identify the presence of colon cancer.) Rather than a full cancer screening test, it's more of a tipoff for doctors (an aid to detecting) to look furtherand perhaps order a colonoscopy or imaging test. Point is: When companies offer this exam, they are helping to catch many more tumors at far earlier stages than has been done in the past.

       Simply by welcoming employees into a prevention program (and helping to foot the bill for health insurance premiums), Quest put its money where its marketing mouth is: in a new diagnostic test; one that its employees already have embraced.

       Granted, a free or reduced-fee blood test offered to employees by one of the country's Best Companies to Work for if You Have Cancer may not appear to be as medically "sexy" as a next-generation MRI machine or the da Vinci robotic surgery systems for prostate, gynecological, and other cancers. But it crystallizes part of a complex path of sound corporate management and CEOguided health care strategies. It's all about a company looking out for its employees, with an inexpensive solution aimed squarely at large numbers of users and potentially a high degree of compliance. Companies of all sizes and the people who run them increasingly are finding that the least expensive cancer "treatment" is preventing it altogether.

Article first published Fall 2010 in LIVESTRONG Magazine